How did the issue of kansas statehood reflect the growing division between north and south?

At the center of Kansas' statehood lie the issue of slavery, the greatest dividing issue between between the northern and southern states at the time. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which established the Kansas and Nebraska territories and set the stage for future statehood, included a condition that would create great conflict in the state, and contributed to the division that set the Civil War in motion: the people of Kansas would be allowed to vote on the legality of slavery.

This led to many people flooding into Kansas, both opposed to and in favor of slavery, in an attempt to influence the result of the vote on slavery. Great violence ensued in the decade that followed regarding this issue (remember that the Civil War took place from 1861-1865, only 7 years after the Kansas-Nebraska Act.)

The issue of Kansas statehood both contributed to and reflected the intensity of a divisive issue between the north and the south: slavery.