The Dred Scott decision and the Kansas-Nebraska Act intensified disputes over what central question?

The Dred Scott decision and the Kansas-Nebraska Act intensified disputes over what central question?

• A. Should representation include enslaved people?
• B. Should the international slave trade be reopened?
• C. Should slavery be allowed in the western territories of the United States?
• D. Should fugitive slaves be returned?

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is whether slavery would be allowed in the western territories and who would decide that status. The Dred Scott decision reinforced the expansion of slavery by ruling that Congress could not ban slavery in new territories, effectively making slavery legal wherever settlers chose to bring it. Then the Kansas-Nebraska Act used popular sovereignty to let the residents of each territory decide on slavery, overturning the Missouri Compromise and igniting intense conflict—Bleeding Kansas—as pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions clashed over the outcome. Taken together, these events center on the question of slavery’s reach into the western territories and how that decision would be made. Choices about representation of enslaved people, reopening the international slave trade, or returning fugitive slaves aren’t the core dispute illuminated by these actions.

The key idea here is whether slavery would be allowed in the western territories and who would decide that status. The Dred Scott decision reinforced the expansion of slavery by ruling that Congress could not ban slavery in new territories, effectively making slavery legal wherever settlers chose to bring it. Then the Kansas-Nebraska Act used popular sovereignty to let the residents of each territory decide on slavery, overturning the Missouri Compromise and igniting intense conflict—Bleeding Kansas—as pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions clashed over the outcome. Taken together, these events center on the question of slavery’s reach into the western territories and how that decision would be made.

Choices about representation of enslaved people, reopening the international slave trade, or returning fugitive slaves aren’t the core dispute illuminated by these actions.