Bleeding Kansas

Lawrence, Pottawatomie, Price, and Quantrill

© Mary Trotter Kion

Apr 9, 2007

Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Louisiana Purchase

The state of Kansas, prior to the Civil War and before becoming a territory due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was part of the far-reaching land that President Thomas Jefferson acquired from Napoleon Bonaparte in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Missouri Compromise and Bleeding Kansas

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, in contradiction to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, allowed slavery in Kansas Territory. This situation sparked a bloody revolt between Free-soil and proslavery settlers who fought to decide whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state. This pre-Civil War unrest created what has historically come to be called Bleeding Kansas.

Border Ruffians

One of the first battles was over the issue of electing a territorial legislature. It was won by the proslavery fraction that stuffed the ballot boxes with the help of what was called border ruffians. These ruffians were Missourians who crossed the boundary between Kansas and Missouri for this very purpose, that is, to stuff the ballot boxes to insure that, like their own state, Kansas would become a slave state.

The free soil people, having lost the election, but gaining in numbers faster than the proslavery people, proceeded to set up their own government. However, the president chose to side with the proslavery people who had won the election.

It was a touchy situation, to say the least, leading to, in November of 1855, a proslavery man shooting and killing a Free-soil man.

Free Soilers Arrested by Proslavers

The spring of the following year, 1856, a proslavery judge issued warrants for the arrest of several Free-soil leaders. Their crime was treason, on the grounds that they had organized a rival government.

Sacking of Lawrence, Kansas

On May 21, 1856, a large group of men from Missouri, armed with five cannons, arrived outside the town of Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence, during this time of turbulence, was considered the major center for those of the Free-soil persuasion. The Free-soil town allowed these well-armed Missourians to enter Lawrence.

Before these Missourians had left Lawrence the newspaper office was destroyed, as well as several other buildings. This sacking of Lawrence, as it came to be called, brought on to this turbulent stage a new player by the name of John Brown.

John Brown and Pottawatomie Creek Killings

Three days after the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas abolitionist John Brown, with his sons and other followers, killed five proslavery settlers near Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.

The Pottawatomie killings and the sacking of Lawrence generated bloody outbreaks that resulted in some two hundred persons, on both sides, being killed. The situation was such that federal troops were brought in to bring the fighting to at least a temporary end. However, in 1858, when Congress rejected a proposed constitution for the territory that permitted slavery the fighting in Kansas resumed.

The territory of Kansas became a state on January 29, 1861. Kansas was now a Free State but the Civil War continued to rage on within its borders.

Quantrill's Raiders Attack Lawrence, Kansas

On August 21, 1863, Lawrence, Kansas once again suffered destruction, although far more devastating than the May 21, 1856 attack. On that date, William Quantrill and his band of Rebel guerrillas, which included Frank James the elder brother of Jesse James, rode into Lawrence. They rounded up all of the men and boys they could find and killed them.

Rebels Under Price Beaten by Union Forces

On October 25, 1864, Major General Sterling Price and his Rebel forces marched across the Missouri-Kansas border. They entered Kansas near Kansas City in an attempt to evade some Union forces that were chasing them. Price's forces met the Union forces at Marais des Cygnes. Although the Union forces were outnumbered, they beat the Confederates.

Price's forces, in fleeing from their Union attackers, crossed Mine Creek and ran into another Union force, which surrounded them. Some six hundred Rebel prisoners were captured.

Sources:

Brewer, Paul. The Civil War: State by State. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, California, 2004.

Faragher, John Mack, General Editor. American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1998.