Which act introduced popular sovereignty in the territories to decide on slavery?

• A. Missouri Compromise
• B. Compromise of 1850
• C. Kansas-Nebraska Act
• D. Dred Scott Case

Answer: (C)

Popular sovereignty means letting the people who live in a territory decide, by vote, whether slavery will be legal there. The Kansas-Nebraska Act did exactly that for the new Kansas and Nebraska territories, stating that residents could determine the slave status by popular vote. This approach effectively overturned the Missouri Compromise’s restriction on slavery in those lands, paving the way for a local contest over slavery and fueling intense conflicts between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions known as Bleeding Kansas. The other options aren’t about introducing this voting method in new territories: the Missouri Compromise set a geographic line dividing free and slave areas; the Compromise of 1850 dealt with multiple issues including some territorial questions but isn’t the act that introduced popular sovereignty in this way; and the Dred Scott decision was a Supreme Court ruling, not a legislative act creating a voting mechanism in new territories.