Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas

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 murders carried out in the Kansas Territory and neighboring Missouri by pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" and anti-slavery "Free-Staters". According to Kansapedia of the Kansas Historical Society, there were 56 documented political killings during the period, and the total may be as high as 200. It has been called a Tragic Prelude, an overture, to the American Civil War which immediately followed it. At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas, upon gaining statehood, would allow slavery, like neighboring Missouri, or prohibit it—that is, whether it would join the Union as a slave state or a free state. The question was of national importance because Kansas' two new senators would affect the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, which was bitterly divided over the issue of slavery. The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 called for popular sovereignty: the decision about slavery would be made by popular vote of the territory's settlers rather than by legislators in Washington. Existing sectional tensions surrounding slavery quickly found focus in Kansas. Those in favor of slavery argued that every settler had the right to bring his own property, slaves in particular, into the Territory. In contrast, some anti-slavery "Free Soil" proponents opposed slavery on religious, ethical, or humanitarian grounds. 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.Missouri, a slave state since 1821, was populated by many settlers with Southern sympathies and pro-slavery views, some of whom tried to influence the Kansas decision by entering Kansas and claiming to be residents. The conflict was fought politically as well as between civilians, where it eventually degenerated into brutal gang violence and paramilitary guerrilla warfare. The term "Bleeding Kansas" was popularized by Horace Greeley's New York Tribune.In Kansas there was a state-level civil war that would soon be replicated on a national basis. 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. Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state the same day that enough Southern Senators had departed, during the secession crisis that led to the Civil War, to allow it to pass (effective January 29, 1861). Partisan violence continued along the Kansas–Missouri border for most of the war, though Union control of Kansas was never seriously threatened. Bleeding Kansas demonstrated that armed conflict over slavery was unavoidable. Its severity made national headlines, which suggested to the American people that the sectional disputes were unlikely to be resolved without bloodshed, and it therefore acted as a preface to the American Civil War. The episode is commemorated with numerous memorials and historic sites.

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