The Kansas-Nebraska Act had a significant effect on the issue of slavery in the west and it broke the line between the pro-slavery south and the anti-slavery north created by the Comprimise of 1850. It left the kansas-nebraska territory open to the "popular sovereignty" i which the inhabitants of the territories could vote on whether they wanted to have slavery be legal. Also, it provided the quicker coming of the Civil War.

Bleeding Kansas was the term for the series of violent feuds going on between the "Border Ruffians" (pro-slavery) and the anti-slavery "Free-Soilers." To most, this was considered the prelude ot the civil war. The settings for these events wereonteh Kansas-Missouri border; since the Kansas-nebraska territories were left up to "popular sovereignty," citizens fro Missoruri went to kansas to vote for slavery, thus the given name "border ruffians." A leader in the bleeding kansas fighting was a s0-called crazed man, John Brown.