Anti-Nebraska movement

The Anti-Nebraska movement was a political alignment in the United States formed in opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 and to its repeal of the Missouri Compromise provision forbidding slavery in U.S. territories north of latitude 36° 30' N. At the time, the name "Nebraska" could loosely refer to areas west of the Missouri River.

Many were deeply alarmed by the prospect of new slave states being established in northern areas formerly reserved for free white settlers.

The first prominent public manifestation of opposition to the act was the Appeal of the Independent Democrats in January 1854.

Supporters included members of the Free Soil Party, Conscience Whigs, and anti-slavery-extension Democrats.

Abraham Lincoln re-entered politics as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (after a period when he devoted himself to his law practice),[3] and was a prominent local anti-Nebraska speaker in central Illinois.