Kansas became a territory May 30, 1854 by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill introduced by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.

The third section of the Douglas bill repealed the Missouri Compromise and threw the territory wide open to the free staters and slave holders and lef the future of the issue up to the settlers themselves as to whether the State should be free or slave. Prior to this Missouri and Maine had applied to admission, the former with a constitution permitting slavery, the latter as a free state... click to read more.