Bleeding Kansas

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Bleeding Kansas
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What was Bleeding Kansas?

• The name Bleeding Kansas refers to the violent
  sectional conflicts in the American Midwest in
  the mid to late 1850s.
• Also referred to as Bloody Kansas or the Border
  War, Bleeding Kansas was a very significant event
  in American History illustrating the depth of the
  struggle between slave and free states.

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Causes Leading Up to the Conflict

• Compromise of 1850 provided temporary unity
  between north and south but could not remain
  effective forever
• Manifest Destiny
• - With the attitude that Americans were destined
  to expand westward, America had plans to build a
  transcontinental railroad. According to Senator
  Stephen Douglass wishes for an Eastern Terminal
  in Chicago, Nebraska would need to be organized
  as a territory.
• Kansas Nebraska Act Popular Sovereignty

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Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854

• Organized Nebraska and Kansas as states and
  instituted popular sovereignty for deciding
  whether the states would be slave or free.
• Popular sovereignty doctrine under which the
  status of slavery in a territory is determined by
  the inhabitants of the land
• It was assumed that Kansas would be slave and
  that Nebraska would be free as a result of the
  passage of the Act, but this assumption was
• not completely correct.

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Border Ruffians

• Border Ruffians were southerners living in
  Missouri that crossed the border to Kansas in
  order to help the Southerners win the elections
  which would decide if the state would be slave or
  free.
• Ruffians hated Northerners and they initiated the
  Raid of Lawrence, Kansas. They crossed the state
  border and looted and burned buildings of the
  free soil community.
• The Raid of Lawrence is sometimes recognized as
  one of the opening shots of the Civil War.

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Pottawatomie Creek Massacre

• Another notable opening shot of the Civil War
  in Bleeding Kansas was the Pottawatomie Massacre.
  
• Led by John Brown, this massacre was an
  abolitionist attack on a proslavery settlement.
• Five proslavery men were taken from their homes
  and hacked to death in the attack.

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John Brown

• Raised in an antislavery home, this militant
  abolitionist put his life on the line to defend
  his cause. John Brown had a mission to abolish
  slavery, and he went to whatever extreme measures
  were necessary to accomplish this mission.
• John Brown emerged as a significant
• figure in antebellum sectional conflict
• and was hanged on December 2, 1859
• because of his violent actions in his
• quest for justice.

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Battle at Osawatomie

• The battle took place on August 30, 1856 when
  pro-slavery forces led by John Reid shot John
  Browns son.John Brown received warning that
  hundreds of pro-slavery soldiers were approaching
  the town of Osawatomie and he quickly assembled a
  small fighting force.
• This battle even went to an extreme of
• utilizing cannons, further illustrating how
• deeply divided the country had become.

monument for the Battle of Osawatomie
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Sumner-Brooks Affair

• The violence of sectional conflict was not
  limited to Kansas. Even Congress witnessed a
  violent encounter as abolitionist Charles Sumner
  attacked the South with his words and was
  attacked by Preston Brooks.
• Sumner delivered a speech in Congress titled The
  crime against Kansas in which he even accused
  senators that were advocates of slavery. In
  response to this, Congressman Preston Brooks
• beat him senseless with a cane.

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Lecompton Constitution

• With effort to win Kansas to the slave side or
  the free side of America, many constitutions
  were written for the future of Kansas.
• The Constitution written in the city of Lecompton
  was a pro-slavery document, and was one of the
  most significant constitutions because President
  James Buchanan encouraged its ratification.
• However, the document was not ratified and
• an election was organized by Congress which
• ultimately declared Kansas a free state.

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Outcomes

• In the conflicts and actual
• battles preceding the Civil war,
• about 55 people died total.
• Although the South had tried to get Kansas to
  become a slave state, Kansas became free in the
  end, reflecting a prevailing sentiment of
  antislavery.
• The murder and mayhem of Bleeding Kansas were not
  actual Civil War battles, but they foreshadowed
  the deadly conflict that was quickly approaching.