Which act is associated with allowing popular sovereignty in the new western territories and influencing the slavery issue?

• A. Bleeding Kansas
• B. Ex Parte Merryman
• C. Kansas-Nebraska Act
• D. Ostend Manifesto

Answer: (C)

The idea being tested is allowing residents of new territories to decide the institution of slavery for themselves through a vote. The Kansas-Nebraska Act did exactly that for the Kansas and Nebraska territories, by replacing the previous geographic ban on slavery with popular sovereignty—letting settlers determine whether slavery would be legal there. This directly influenced the slavery issue by opening the door to expanding slavery into those areas and by prompting conflict as pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions moved to shape the outcome. Bleeding Kansas later described the violence that erupted because of this decision. The other options don’t fit because they refer to events or documents not about creating a voting mechanism to decide slavery in new western territories: Bleeding Kansas is the violence that followed, Ex Parte Merryman deals with habeas corpus during the Civil War, and the Ostend Manifesto concerns Cuba rather than U.S. territories deciding slavery through popular sovereignty.