By 1850, few people in the United States could talk calmly about slavery. White Southerners, whether they owned slaves or not, saw slavery as a way of life. They argued that without slaves, the great cotton plantations would disappear.
Many Northerners, on the other hand, believed that it was wrong for one human being to own another. Some even began to speak out against slavery. These men and women were called abolitionists because they wanted to abolish, or end, slavery.
Some of the abolitionists were, in fact, escaped slaves. Frederick Douglass was one of those abolitionists who had witnessed first hand the horrors of slavery. He started a paper called the North Star. He called it the North Star because runaway slaves used the North Star as a guide when trying to escape.
Of course, although the abolitionists' speeches altered how a lot of people veiwed slavery, the slaves had not been freed yet. So, instead of just waiting, many slaves tried to escape. There were many different techniques. Some slaves refused to work. Others broke or hid tools to slow down work. Some attacked their owners.
The way most slaves escaped was by using the Underground Railroad. It was neither underground nor a railroad. It was actually made up of barns, attics, cellers, or any other place where slaves could hide as they made their way north to freedom. The families who lived at each "stop" on the railroad acted as conductors. At night, they led the runaways to the next station and hid them. Night after night, fugitive slaves continued the journey until they reached the North.
One of the most famous conductors on the underground railroad was Harriet Tubman. She was a former slave who had escaped from Maryland in 1849. For the next 15 years, she risked her life many times to lead more than 300 slaves to freedom. At one time, slave owners offered $40,000 to anyone who could capture Harriet Tubman. No one ever got the money because no one was able to catch her.
The more some Americans spoke out against slavery, the louder others argued for it. Disagreements grew more heated. Arguments raged across the nation.
Many Northerners were against the idea. They pointed out that Kansas and Nebraska were north of the line drawn in the in the Missouri Compromise. So these territories should become free states. Steven Douglas, a senator from Illinois, disagreed. He explanied that the Compromise of 1850 had done away with the Missouri Compromise.
Douglas argued that the people in the territories should be given a chance to decide for themselves about slavery. At first, it seemed like a good idea. Sotherners were happy because the territories would remain open to slavery. Both territories were so far north that most Northerners were sure that they would enter the union as free states.
Nebraska did join the union as a free state. That made Southerners more determined that Kansas must join as a slave state. Northerners were equally determined to keep slavery out of Kansas. Kansas became a battleground. Groups of armed men from both the North and the South rode through the countryside attacking each other's towns and farms. In all, 200 people were killed in the fighting.