Final answer:
According to popular sovereignty, the residents of a territory would determine if slavery would be allowed in that territory, based on the principle of majority rule.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to the principle of popular sovereignty, residents of a territory would determine whether a territory would have slavery. This principle was based on the belief that citizens should decide issues by majority rule. During the 1840s and 1850s, this concept became especially contentious concerning the issue of slavery in the United States. The decision to allow slavery would be made by the settlers of a territory rather than Congress. This doctrine came into play with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the proposed Wilmot Proviso. Popular sovereignty was seen as a way to address the growing sectional conflict between the North and South but ultimately failed to resolve the dispute, as seen in the violent confrontations in 'Bleeding Kansas'.