Question

Create a Top Five list of events related to westward expansion that affected African Americans. Review the lesson for compromises and consequences to help make your list.
Events you should consider include the following:
•Missouri Compromise
•Compromise of 1850
•Kansas-Nebraska Act
•Dred Scott v. Sanford
•Fugitive Slave Act
•Nat Turner's Rebellion
•Bleeding Kansas
•Harpers Ferry

Step 2: Explain your reasoning for the item you ranked as the #1 event with strongest impact.

Answer 1

1. The Kansas/Nebraska Act was an Act that repealed the Missouri Compromise. It allowed people in Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether or not they would allow slavery in their borders.
2. Missouri compromise  was a compromise to preserve the balance of power in the US Congress between slave and slave free states. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and admitted Maine as a free state. It was declared unconstitutional later because the US Supreme Court decided that the Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery.
3. Dred Scott v. Sandford decision was a US Supreme Court decision that held that black people whose ancestors were imported in the US and sold as slaves could not be an American citizen and had no right to sue the government. This decision spurred anti-slavery elements in the North and was a catalyst for the American Civil War.
4. Fugitive slave act was an act that required that all escaped slaves should be returned to be returned to their masters and all free states citizens should cooperate with that.
5. Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent civil confrontations in the US. This lasted between 1854 and 1861 and consisted of electoral fraud, raids, assaults, murders carried out by pro-slavery.