Before the Kansas-Nebraska act started, the idea of popular sovereignty gained interest in the territory. Several groups with political interests promoted the idea of settlement by whites. One group who liked free-state settlement was the New England Emigrant Aid Company. The first group of New England settlers created the city of Lawrence, Kansas. That city quickly became a place of abolitionist activity. The same year, the city of Topeka, Kansas was created by Cyrus K. Holliday and other anti-slavery advocates. Missourians felt there was a plot by abolitionists to surround the state of Missouri with free states. Residents of Missouri with an interest in Kansas becoming pro-slavery flooded into the territory. The towns of Atchison and Leavenworth were both founded by pro-slavery Missourians.