Two years later, in 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act into law. The Kansas-Nebraska Act mandated popular sovereignty, which allowed settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. This bill overturned the Missouri Compromise’s use of latitude as the boundary between slave and free territory. Conflicts arose which led to a period of violence, known as Bleeding Kansas. One event after another occurred, such as the Dred Scott Decision and John Brown taking armory at Harpers Ferry. Lastly, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential election. The South threatened to succeed from the Union if Lincoln was elected, and they followed through. This quickly led to the Civil
