Q 01/05

Which city is the capital of Kansas?

A) Wichita

B) Topeka

C) Lawrence

D) Salina

Answer · why

B) Topeka

Wichita is the most populous city, but the seat of government has sat on the Kansas River since statehood in 1861.

Q 02/05

What is Kansas's official nickname?

A) Wheat State

B) Prairie State

C) Sunflower State

D) Free State

Answer · why

C) Sunflower State

The state flower is the wild native sunflower, and the same bloom shares the reverse of the 2005 Kansas quarter with a bison.

Q 03/05

In which year was Kansas admitted to the Union as the 34th state?

A) 1848

B) 1854

C) 1858

D) 1861

Answer · why

D) 1861

Statehood came on January 29, weeks after Southern legislators began walking out of Congress, which cleared the way for entry as a free state.

Q 04/05

The violent 1850s struggle over whether the territory would allow slavery is remembered by what name?

A) Bleeding Kansas

B) The Border Uprising

C) The Prairie War

D) The Territorial Insurrection

Answer · why

A) Bleeding Kansas

At least 56 political killings were documented in the territory between 1854 and 1859, a rehearsal for the Civil War that followed.

Q 05/05

Which 1854 law by Stephen Douglas organized two new territories and let settlers vote on slavery?

A) Missouri Compromise

B) Compromise of 1850

C) Homestead Act

D) Kansas-Nebraska Act

Answer · why

D) Kansas-Nebraska Act

Stephen Douglas drafted it mainly to clear a path for a transcontinental railroad; the popular-sovereignty clause repealed the Missouri Compromise and...