Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The Kansas Territory (1854–1861) was defined by violent conflict over slavery. The Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854) allowed popular sovereignty on slavery, repealing the Missouri Compromise. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers flooded in, leading to fraudulent elections, guerrilla warfare, and atrocities like the Sack of Lawrence (1856). Figures like John Brown became infamous. The turmoil, dubbed "Bleeding Kansas," foreshadowed the Civil War. Kansas entered the Union as a free state in January 1861.