What was bleeding Kansas and why did it happen?
Bleeding Kansas describes the period of repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new territory of Kansas in 1854. In all, some 55 people were killed between 1855 and 1859.
Why was bleeding Kansas important?
Bleeding Kansas was part of the political storm that occurred throughout the United States before the Civil War. The anti-slavery forces prevailed as Kansas entered into the Union a free state on January 29, 1861.
Why did Bleeding Kansas occur quizlet?
Bleeding Kansas started here, when a anti-slavery settlers wounded a pro-slavery sheriff. It was here that 5 pro-slavery settlers were killed in front of their families by anti-slavery settlers. Anti-slavery settlers who moved to the Kansas territory in hopes of claiming Kansas as a free state.
What was Bleeding Kansas quizlet?
Bleeding Kansas refers to the time between 1854-58 when the Kansas territory was the site of much violence over whether the territory would be free or slave.
How Bleeding Kansas caused the Civil War?
Between roughly 1855 and 1859, Kansans engaged in a violent guerrilla war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in an event known as Bleeding Kansas which significantly shaped American politics and contributed to the coming of the Civil War.
What was John Brown's role in Bleeding Kansas quizlet?
Terms in this set (2) -John Brown was an abolitionist extremist who wanted to violently overthrow the slavery system. During Bleeding Kansas, he and his sons led attacks on pro-slavery citizens. He believed that his actions were a will of God, and therefore pure.
What is the Kansas-Nebraska Act quizlet?
What is the Kansas Nebraska Act? The Kansas Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated popular sovereignty allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed whithin a new states border.
What was the outcome of Bleeding Kansas?
Bleeding KansasDate1854–1861LocationKansas TerritoryResultAnti-slavery settler victory Kansas admitted to the Union as a free state Fighting continues into the American Civil War
What was the long term effect of the Bleeding Kansas problem?
Explanation: "Bleeding Kansas" clearly the tension on the issue of slavery and the failure to find a compromise democratically in this new state is one of the main factors that led to the start of the Civil War.
How did Bleeding Kansas affect the north and south?
It would open the North to slavery. Northerners were outraged; Southerners were overjoyed. Douglas was stubborn. Ignoring the anger of his own party, he got President Pierce's approval and pushed his bill through both houses of Congress.
How did the Bleeding Kansas incident change the face of antislavery advocacy?
How did the "Bleeding Kansas" incident change the face of antislavery advocacy? In response to proslavery forces' destruction of the antislavery press and Free State Hotel, radical abolitionists, including John Brown, murdered proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie.
What was the name of the state that was bleding before the Civil War?
Please accept the sincere regards of your future repentance. Sene Campbell. Bleeding Kansas was part of the political storm that occurred throughout the United States before the Civil War. The anti-slavery forces prevailed as Kansas entered into the Union a free state on January 29, 1861.
What was the name of the era of killing in Kansas?
This era became forever known as Bleeding Kansas. During Bleeding Kansas, murder, mayhem, destruction and psychological warfare became a code of conduct in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri. A well-known examples of this violence was the massacre in May 1856 at Pottawatomie Creek where John Brown and his sons killed five pro-slavery advocates.
What political groups occupied Kansas?
Three distinct political groups occupied Kansas: pro-slavery, Free-Staters and abolitionists. Violence broke out immediately between these opposing factions and continued until 1861 when Kansas entered the Union as a free state on January 29. This era became forever known as Bleeding Kansas.
What act established the boundaries of Kansas and Nebraska?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established the territorial boundaries of Kansas and Nebraska and opened the land to legal settlement. It allowed the residents of these territories to decide by popular vote whether their state would be free or slave. This concept of self-determination was called popular sovereignty.
What battle did Montgomery and his men fight?
In April of 1858, Montgomery and his men fought U.S. troops stationed at Fort Scott in the battle of Paint Creek. One soldier was killed in this encounter. In May of 1858, Montgomery and his men drove pro-slavery forces from Linn County.
What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 instituted a policy known as popular sovereignty in the Kansas Territory, allowing the settlers to decide by vote whether the territory would be admitted to the Union as a slave or free state. Activists from each side flooded the territory in an attempt to influence the outcome, leading to violent, often deadly, clashes that foreshadowed the national civil war to come.
What happened to the Western Hotel in 1858?
On June 5, 1858, Montgomery and his raiders tried to burn down the Western Hotel. Several shots were fired into the hotel and surrounding homes, but the hotel was saved. Violence such as this caught the governor's attention. On June 15, 1858, he held a meeting at the Western Hotel in order to settle political unrest.
What did the sponsors of the Kansas-Nebraska Act expect?
Sponsors of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (May 30, 1854) expected its provisions for territorial self-government to arrest the “torrent of fanaticism” that had been dividing the nation regarding the slavery issue.
What happened after the sack of Lawrence?
Three days after the Sack of Lawrence, an antislavery band led by John Brown retaliated in the Pottawatomie Massacre. After the attack Brown’s name evoked fear and rage in slavery apologists in Kansas. Periodic bloodshed along the border followed as the two factions fought battles, captured towns, and set prisoners free.
What was the name of the raid that brought the tensions between the slaves to a new level?
Called Bleeding Kansas, this violent conflict brought national attention to John Brown, who would propel sectional tensions over slavery to a new level in 1859 with his Harpers Ferry Raid, an attempt to spark a massive rebellion by enslaved people. Before Brown’s raid, in 1857 the…
What was the name of the raid that John Brown led to?
Called Bleeding Kansas, this violent conflict brought national attention to John Brown, who would propel sectional tensions over slavery to a new level in 1859 with his Harpers Ferry Raid , an attempt to spark a massive rebellion by enslaved people. Before Brown’s raid, in 1857 the….
What was the political struggle between the Lecompton and Brown?
John Brown, oil on canvas by John Steuart Curry, 1939. A political struggle to determine the future state’s position on slavery ensued , centred on the Lecompton Constitution proposed in 1857.
When was Kansas admitted as a free state?
The question was finally settled when Kansas was admitted as a free state in January 1861, but, meanwhile, “Bleeding Kansas” had furnished the newly formed Republican Party with a much needed antislavery issue in the national election of 1860.
Who was the antislavery band that led the attack on Charles Sumner?
Engraving showing the attack on Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate, 1856; from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Three days after the Sack of Lawrence, an antislavery band led by John Brown retaliated in the Pottawatomie Massacre.
When was the poem "Bleeding Kansas" published?
Weyman, published in the newspaper on September 13, 1856: Far in the West rolls the thunder—.
What was the civil war in Kansas?
There were two different capitals (Lecompton and Lawrence/Topeka), two different constitutions (the anti-slavery Topeka Constitution and the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution ), and two different legislatures, the so-called "bogus legislature" in Lecompton and the anti-slavery body in Lawrence. Both sides sought and received help from outside, the pro-slavery side from the federal government; President Buchanan openly helped the pro-slavery partisans. Both claimed to reflect the will of the people of Kansas. The pro-slavers used violence and threats of violence, and the free-soilers responded in kind. After much commotion, including a Congressional investigation, it became clear that a majority of Kansans wanted Kansas to be a free state. However, this required Congressional approval, and was blocked there by Southerners.
What were the arguments against slavery in Kansas?
However, at the time, the most persuasive argument against introducing slavery in Kansas was that it would allow rich slave owners to control the land to the exclusion of poor non-slaveholders who, regardless of their moral inclinations, did not have the means to acquire either slaves or sizable land holdings for themselves.
What was the name of the battle between Dred Scott and Sandford?
Dred Scott v. Sandford. Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.
Why did Congress order another election?
Congress instead ordered another election because of voting irregularities uncovered. On August 2, 1858, Kansas voters rejected the document by 11,812 to 1,926. While the Lecompton Constitution was pending before Congress, a third document, the Leavenworth Constitution, was written and passed by Free-State delegates.
Why was the Kansas–Nebraska Act important?
In May 1854, the Kansas–Nebraska Act created from unorganized Indian lands the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska for settlement by U.S. citizens. The Act was proposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois as a way to appease Southern representatives in Congress, who had resisted earlier proposals to organize the Nebraska Territory because they knew it must be admitted to the Union according to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had explicitly forbidden the practice of slavery in all U.S. territory north of 36°30' latitude and west of the Mississippi River, except in the state of Missouri. Southerners feared the incorporation of Nebraska would upset the balance between slave and free states and thereby give abolitionist Northerners an advantage in Congress.
How many issues are there in The Kents?
The Kents, a 12 issue mini-series of comics written by John Ostrander exploring the history of Superman's adoptive family set against the conflicts of the Bleeding Kansas era.
Why is Kansas called Bleeding Kansas?
This period of guerrilla warfare is referred to as Bleeding Kansas because of the blood shed by pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups, lasting until the violence died down in roughly 1859. Most of the violence was relatively unorganized, small scale violence, yet it led to mass feelings of terror within the territory.
What was the significance of the canning of Sumner and Bleeding Kansas?
The canning of Sumner and Bleeding Kansas drove many northern Know Nothings to the Republican Party, as they viewed it as the only political party actively opposing the slave power. In order to justify their party’s existence, Republicans required evidence of the slave power’s continual harassment of northerners, which Bleeding Kansas easily provided. As the Republicans gained power the Democrats continued to fracture along sectional lines, which only increased with the crisis over the Lecompton Constitution. To southern Democrats, Bleeding Kansas illustrated the danger free soilers (who they lumped in with abolitionists) posed to the southern society, and yet, many southern Democrats felt that the northern wing of the party remained sympathetic to free soilers and were unwilling to denounce them. These increased demands to bend to the will of the southern wing of the party alienated many northern Democrats who wanted their politicians to act in the best interest of northerners, which further divided northern and and southern Democrats.
What happened in 1856?
On May 21, 1856 hundreds of border ruffians once again crossed the border between Missouri and Kansas and entered Lawrence to wreak havoc— setting fire to buildings and destroying the printing press of an abolitionist newspaper. Although no one was killed, the Republican press labeled this event as the “Sack of Lawrence,” which officially ignited a guerrilla war between pro-slavery settlers aided by border ruffians and anti-slavery settlers. It is important to note that sporadic violence existed in the territory since 1855. This period of guerrilla warfare is referred to as Bleeding Kansas because of the blood shed by pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups, lasting until the violence died down in roughly 1859. Most of the violence was relatively unorganized, small scale violence, yet it led to mass feelings of terror within the territory. The most horrific incident occurred in late May 1856 when one night abolitionist fanatic John Brown and his sons forced five southerners from their homes along the Pot tawatomie Creek and murdered them in cold blood. While their victims were southerners they did not own any slaves but still supported slavery’s extension into Kansas. Republicans used Bleeding Kansas as a powerful rhetorical weapon in the 1856 Election to garner support among northerners by arguing that the Democrats clearly sided with the pro-slavery forces perpetrating this violence. In reality, both sides engaged in acts of violence—neither party was innocent.
What was the Kansas Nebraska Act?
In May 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which formally organized the territory west of Missouri and Iowa ( Kansas and Nebraska) and opened this space up to settlers. In a departure from previous territorial and state organization bills, Congress did not explicitly designate these territories to be either free or enslaved. Rather, the Kansas-Nebraska Act adhered to popular sovereignty a principle where the people residing in Kansas and Nebraska would determine if the territory shall be free or enslaved either by a popular referendum or through the election of pro-slavery and anti-slavery representatives to draft a constitution. Consequently, free state and slave state proponents rushed to Kansas to try to stake their claim in their efforts to either legalize or prohibit slavery there. There was not the same flurry in Nebraska as it was largely assumed that it would become a free state without much debate; however, Kansas was a different story. Located directly west of Missouri, under the Missouri Compromise, slavery would be prohibited in the Kansas territory; however, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened up the possibility for slavery to exist in this territory and many southerners remained committed to take advantage of this opportunity and make Kansas a slave state.
What were the settlers who moved to Kansas?
Most of the settlers who first moved to Kansas after the land went on sale were small midwestern farmers and non-slave holders from the Upper South and both groups had little interest in slavery’s extension. While there were few slave owning settlers, pro-slavery proponents were determined to legalize slavery in Kansas. On March 30, 1855 hundreds of heavily armed Missourians poured over the border, exploited a loophole as to what constituted “residency” in Kansas and voted in the first territorial election. Not only did they illegally cast their own ballots but these border ruffians also stuffed the ballot box with hundreds of fictious ballots. Consequently, a high majority of pro-slavery men were voted into the territorial legislature. This territorial legislature immediately passed draconian pro-slavery laws, including a law that stipulated the possession of abolitionist literature to be a capital offense. In response, the anti-slavery men formed their own government in Lawrence, Kansas, which the Pierce administration denounced as an illegitimate and outlaw regime. With this split between a pro-slavery government and an anti-slavery government it was only a matter of time before violent clashes broke out.
What war did the Kansans fight?
Between roughly 1855 and 1859, Kansans engaged in a violent guerrilla war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in an event known as Bleeding Kansas which... Between roughly 1855 and 1859, Kansans engaged in a violent guerrilla war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in an event known as Bleeding Kansas which...
When did Kansas legalize slavery?
While there were few slave owning settlers, pro-slavery proponents were determined to legalize slavery in Kansas. On March 30, 1855 hundreds of heavily armed Missourians poured over the border, exploited a loophole as to what constituted “residency” in Kansas and voted in the first territorial election.
What was the cause of the bleeding of Kansas?
The primary cause of “Bleeding Kansas” was the effort of Southern interests to undermine the Missouri Compromise of 1820 under which Kansas should have been a Free State. They ignored the law and used vigilante tactics, murder, and threats to drive out homesteaders who did not own slaves.
How did the Bleeding Kansas controversy start?
Bleeding Kansas started, for purposes of this answer, with an act of Congress specifying that the residents of the Kansas Territory would decide for themselves through elections whether to allow slavery when admitted to the Union as a state. The political struggles which were intended to be decided at the ballot box were primarily fought in the battle field. While not officially part of the Civil War, the controversy was not resolved completely until the Civil War and arguably because of the Civil War.
Why did the settlers come to Kansas?
For geographic reasons, settlers in Kansas were coming from both the abolitionist northern states and the slave holding southern states. The USA was deeply divided on the issue with the economic needs of the primarily agrarian southern states and largely industrialized northern states at odds. In hopes of swaying the elections, people on both sides of the issue came streaming into Kansas. Roughly 2/3 of the votes were cast by non-residents; consequently, the election results were nullified. Two different territorial governments were established; a pro-slavery government with a capital in Pawnee and an abolitionist government seated in Topeka. The competing governments had their own militias as did many of the communities. Open battle resulted.
What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 called for a plebiscite to decide (only settlers could vote) whether to be a free state or a slave state. In 1855 John Brown along with his 5 sonsvisited the state and exhorted the anti-slavery side. He led a force of anti-slavery volunteers who actually hacked to death several of the pro-slavery leaders. Brown and his men escaped along with a number of then freed slaves. His next venture would be the 1856 attack on Harper’s Ferry which resulted in Brown’s death. It also was part of the tinder igniting the Civil War. After numerous attempts to steal the election through violence, bribery & fraud President Franklin Pierce sent US Army troops from Ft. Leavenworth with cannons aimed at Constitution Hall in Topeka to force the ‘Free State Legislature” (which was pro-slavery in the voting for the plebiscite) to disband.
What was the 34th state in Kansas?
Both of these factions regarded themselves as being the legitimate state government of Kansas and soon the violence began to escalate fast. It wasn’t until the Civil War and the introduction of Kansas as America’s 34th State (under Topeka) that the violence ended.
When did Kansas join the Union?
Kansas entered the Union as a free state in January, 1861 but the conflict continued on the MOKAN border even after the Civil War concluded.
Who coined the phrase "Bleeding Kansas"?
To be precise, although Horace Greeley , publisher of the NY Herald Tribune, popularized the term, “Bleeding Kansas,” he did not invent it. The Tribune's first related use was to quote a Colonel Perry of Kansas who referred to "Kansas, bleeding at every pore . . . “ The first use of the exact phrase was when the Tribune published a poem by Charles S. Weyman on September 13, 1856:
Passage of The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Struggle Over Elections
- In New England, a group of abolitionists formed the Emigrant Aid Company, which sent anti-slavery settlers to Kansas to ensure it would become a free territory. On the other side, thousands of pro-slavery Missourians flooded into the new territory to illegally vote in Kansas’ first territorial election in November 1854. Pro-slavery candidate John Whitfield easily defeated two Free Soil c…
John Brown Responds to Violence in Lawrence
- Sporadic outbursts of violence occurred between pro-and anti-slavery forces in late 1855 and early 1856. In a sharp escalation of that violence, a pro-slavery group stormed the Free State stronghold of Lawrence on May 21, 1856, destroying printing presses, looting homes and stores and setting fire to a hotel. In response to the “Sack of Lawrence,” as it became known, the aboliti…
'Bleeding Kansas' Draws National Attention
- The upheaval in Kansas captured the attention of the entire nation and even spread to Congress. Two days before Brown’s attack in Pottawatomie, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with his cane on the Senate floorin retaliation for Sumner’s angry speech denouncing supporters of slavery in Kansas (including Bro…
Sources
- Bleeding Kansas. American Battlefield Trust. Ross Drake, “The Law That Ripped America in Two.” Smithsonian, May 2004. Nicole Etcheson, “Bleeding Kansas: From the Kansas-Nebraska Act to Harpers Ferry.” Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865. Kansas City Public Library. Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery(W.…
Overview
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.
The conflict was characterized by years of electoral fraud, raids, assaults, and …
Origins
As abolitionism became increasingly popular in the United States and tensions between its supporters and detractors grew, the U.S. Congress maintained a tenuous balance of political power between Northern and Southern representatives. At the same time, the increasing emigration of Americans to the country's western frontier and the desire to build a transcontinental railroad that …
Constitutional fight
Much of the early confrontation of the Bleeding Kansas era centered formally on the creation of a constitution for the future state of Kansas. The first of four such documents was the Topeka Constitution, written by anti-slavery forces unified under the Free-Soil Party in December 1855. This constitution was the basis for the Free-State territorial government that resisted the federally authorized government, elected by Missourians who, Congressional investigation soon revealed…
Open violence
On November 21, 1855, the so-called Wakarusa War began in Douglas County when a pro-slavery settler, Franklin Coleman, shot and killed a Free-Stater, Charles W. Dow, with whom Coleman had long been engaged in a feud that was unrelated to local or national politics. Dow was the first American settler to be murdered in the Kansas Territory. The decision by Douglas County Sheriff Sam…
Kansas admitted as a free state
The Congressional legislative deadlock was broken in early 1861 when, following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President, seven Southern states seceded from the Union. Kansas's entry as a free state had already been approved by the House of Representatives, but had been blocked by Southern senators. When, early in 1861, the senators of the seceding states withdrew from Congress or were expelled, Kansas was immediately, within days, admitted to the Union as a fre…
Legacy
In 2006, federal legislation defined a new Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area (FFNHA) and was approved by Congress. A task of the heritage area is to interpret Bleeding Kansas stories, which are also called stories of the Kansas–Missouri border war. A theme of the heritage area is the enduring struggle for freedom. FFNHA includes 41 counties, 29 of which are in eastern Kansas and 12 in western Missouri.
See also
• Constitutions of Kansas
• Origins of the American Civil War
Further reading
• Territorial Kansas Online 1854–1861. A virtual repository for Territorial Kansas History, University of Kansas and Kansas State Historical Society, 2018
• Brown, Salmon (June 1935). "John Brown and Sons in Kansas Territory". Indiana Magazine of History. Vol. 31, no. 2. pp. 142–150. JSTOR 27786731.
• Sanborn, F. B. (February 1908). "The Early History of Kansas, 1854–1861". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 3rd. 1 [Vol…