Bleeding Kansas - wikipedia Bleeding Kansas Bleeding Kansas Part of the prelude to the American Civil War 1856 map showing slave states ( gray ), free states ( pink ), and territories ( green ) in the United States, with Kansas in center ( white ) Date 1854 -- 1861 Location Kansas and Missouri Result Anti-slavery victory ; Kansas admitted to the Union as a free state Belligerents Free State settlers, Jayhawkers Pro-slavery settlers, Border Ruffians Casualties and losses unknown, 100 or fewer ( 30 -- 40 killed ) unknown, 80 or fewer ( 20 -- 30 killed ) Bleeding Kansas Wakarusa War Sacking of Lawrence Pottawatomie massacre Battle of Black Jack First and Second Battles of Franklin Battle of Fort Titus Battle of Osawatomie Marais des Cygnes massacre Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 which 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 retributive murders carried out by pro-slavery `` Border Ruffians '' and anti-slavery `` Free - Staters '' in Kansas and neighboring Missouri. At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether the Kansas Territory would allow or outlaw slavery, and thus enter the Union as a slave state or a free state. The Kansas -- Nebraska Act of 1854 called for `` popular sovereignty '', requiring that the decision about slavery be made by the territory 's settlers ( rather than outsiders ) and decided by a popular vote. Ongoing sectional tensions surrounding slavery quickly found focus in Kansas, with the pro-slavery element arguing that every settler had the right to bring his own property, including slaves, into the territory ; anti-slavery `` free soil '' proponents argued not only that slavery was unethical, but that permitting slavery in Kansas would allow rich slaveholders to control the land to the exclusion of non-slaveholders. Missouri, a slave state since 1821, was populated by a large number of settlers with Southern sympathies and pro-slavery attitudes, many of whom tried to influence the decision in Kansas. 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. Bleeding Kansas was demonstrative of the gravity of the era 's most pressing social issues, from the matter of slavery to the class conflicts emerging on the American frontier. Its severity made national headlines which suggested to the American people that the sectional disputes were unlikely to reach compromise without bloodshed, and it therefore directly presaged the American Civil War. Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state in January 1861, but partisan violence continued along the Kansas -- Missouri border for most of the war. The episode is commemorated with numerous memorials and designated historic sites. Contents 1 Origins 1.1 First Territorial Legislature 2 Constitutional fight 3 Open violence 4 Legacy 4.1 Heritage Area 4.2 In popular culture 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links Origins Events leading to the American Civil War Slavery Northwest Ordinance Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions Battle of Negro Fort Missouri Compromise Tariff of 1828 Nat Turner 's slave rebellion Nullification Crisis The Amistad Prigg v. Pennsylvania Texas annexation Mexican -- American War Wilmot Proviso Manifest destiny Underground Railroad Nashville Convention Compromise of 1850 Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Uncle Tom 's Cabin Kansas -- Nebraska Act Ostend Manifesto Bleeding Kansas Caning of Charles Sumner Dred Scott v. Sandford The Impending Crisis of the South Brown 's raid on Harpers Ferry 1860 presidential election Crittenden Compromise Secession of Southern States Star of the West Corwin Amendment Morrill Tariff Battle of Fort Sumter 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. 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. Though the Missouri Compromise of 1820 had explicitly forbidden the practice of slavery in all U.S. territory north of 36 ° 30 ' latitude and west of the Mississippi River, except the state of Missouri, the 1854 act directly contradicted this agreement by permitting settlers of Kansas and Nebraska to determine their state 's slavery status by popular vote. Immediately, immigrants supporting both sides of the slavery question arrived in the Kansas Territory to establish residency and gain the right to vote. Among the first settlers of Kansas were citizens of slave states, especially Missouri, many of whom strongly supported Southern ideologies and emigrated specifically to secure the expansion of slavery. Pro-slavery immigrants settled towns including Leavenworth and Atchison. The administration of President Franklin Pierce appointed territorial officials in Kansas aligned with its own pro-slavery views and, heeding rumors that the frontier was being overwhelmed by Northerners, thousands of non-resident slavery proponents soon entered Kansas with the goal of influencing local politics. Pro-slavery factions thereby captured many early territorial elections, often by fraud and intimidation. In November 1854, thousands of armed pro-slavery men known as `` Border Ruffians '' or `` Southern Yankees '', mostly from Missouri, poured into the Kansas Territory and swayed the vote in the election for a non-voting delegate to Congress in favor of pro-slavery Democratic candidate John Wilkins Whitfield. The following year, a congressional committee investigating the election reported that 1,729 fraudulent votes were cast compared to 1,114 legal votes. In one location, only 20 of the 604 voters were residents of the Kansas Territory ; in another, 35 were residents and 226 non-residents. At the same time, Northern abolitionists encouraged their own supporters to move to Kansas in the effort to secure the territory as a free state, flooding Kansas with so - called `` free - soilers '' or `` Free - Staters ''. Many citizens of Northern states arrived with assistance from benevolent societies such as the Boston - based New England Emigrant Aid Company, which was founded shortly before passage of the Kansas -- Nebraska Act with the specific intention of transporting anti-slavery immigrants to the frontier. To help countermand the voting fraud, around 1,200 New England Yankees emigrated to the Kansas Territory by the summer of 1855. The abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher armed many of them with Sharps rifles, which allegedly became known as `` Beecher 's Bibles '' for their shipment in wooden crates so labeled. Efforts like these were directly responsible for the establishment of towns which later became strongholds of Republican and abolitionist sentiment, including Lawrence, Topeka and Manhattan. First territorial legislature 1855 Free - State poster On March 30, 1855, Kansas Territory held the election for its first territorial legislature. Crucially, this legislature would decide whether the territory would allow slavery. Just as had happened in the election of November 1854, `` Border Ruffians '' from Missouri again streamed into the territory to vote, and pro-slavery delegates were elected to 37 of the 39 seats -- Martin F. Conway and Samuel D. Houston from Riley County were the only Free - Staters elected. Due to questions about electoral fraud, Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder invalidated the results in five voting districts, and a special election was held on May 22 to elect replacements. Eight of the eleven delegates elected in the special election were Free - Staters, but this still left the pro-slavery camp with an overwhelming 29 -- 10 advantage. In response to the disputed votes and rising tension, Congress sent a special committee to the Kansas Territory in 1856. The committee report concluded that if the election of March 30, 1855 had been limited to `` actual settlers '' it would have elected a Free - State legislature. The report also stated that the legislature actually seated `` was an illegally constituted body, and had no power to pass valid laws ''. Nevertheless, the pro-slavery legislature convened in the newly created territorial capital in Pawnee on July 2, 1855. The legislature immediately invalidated the results from the special election in May and seated the pro-slavery delegates elected in March. After only one week in Pawnee, the legislature moved the territorial capital to the Shawnee Mission on the Missouri border, where it reconvened and began passing laws favorable to slaveholders. In August, anti-slavery residents met to formally reject the pro-slavery laws passed by the so - called `` bogus '' legislature. They quickly elected their own Free - State delegates to a separate legislature based in Topeka, which stood in opposition to the pro-slavery government operating in Lecompton, and drafted the first territorial constitution, the Topeka Constitution. In a message to Congress on January 24, 1856, President Franklin Pierce declared the Free - State Topeka government insurrectionist in its stand against pro-slavery territorial officials. The presence of dual governments was symbolic of the strife brewing in the territory and further provoked supporters of both sides of the conflict. Constitutional fight Much of the early confrontation of the Bleeding Kansas era centered on the adoption of a constitution that would govern the state of Kansas. The first of four such documents was the Topeka Constitution, written by anti-slavery forces unified under the Free - State Party in December 1855. This constitution was the basis for the Free - State territorial government that resisted the illegitimate but federally authorized government which had been previously elected by non-resident Missourians. In 1857, a second constitutional convention met in Lecompton and by early November had drafted the Lecompton Constitution, a pro-slavery document endorsed by President James Buchanan. The constitution was submitted to Kansans for a vote on a special slavery article, but Free - Staters refused to participate, knowing that the constitution would allow Kansas slaveholders to keep existing slaves even if the article in question was voted against. The Lecompton Constitution, including the slavery article, was approved by a vote of 6,226 to 569 on December 21. 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. It was more radical than other Free - State proposals in that it would have extended suffrage to `` every male citizen '', regardless of race. Participation in this ballot on May 18, 1858, was a fraction of the previous and there was some opposition by Free - State Democrats. The proposed constitution was forwarded to the U.S. Senate on January 6, 1859, where it was met with a tepid reception and left to die in committee. The third and final Free - State proposal was the Wyandotte Constitution, drafted in 1859, which represented the anti-slavery view of the future of Kansas. It was approved in a referendum by a vote of 10,421 to 5,530 on October 4, 1859. With southern states still in control of the Senate, Kansas awaited admission to the Union until January 29, 1861. Open violence In October 1855, outspoken abolitionist John Brown arrived in the Kansas Territory to fight slavery. On November 21, the so - called Wakarusa War began when a Free - Stater named Charles Dow was shot by a pro-slavery settler. The resulting conflict had one fatality, when Free - Stater Thomas Barber was shot and killed near Lawrence on December 6. On May 21, 1856, Missourians invaded Lawrence and burned the Free State Hotel, destroyed two newspaper offices, and ransacked homes and stores. A cannon used during the Mexican -- American War, called the Old Kickapoo or Kickapoo Cannon, was stolen and used on that day by a pro-slavery group of people, including the Kickapoo Rangers of the Kansas Territorial Militia. It was later recovered by an anti-slavery faction and returned to the city of Leavenworth. Preston Brooks attacking Charles Sumner in the U.S. Senate in 1856 In May 1856, Republican Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts took to the floor to denounce the threat of slavery in Kansas and humiliate its supporters. He had devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what Republicans called the Slave Power, that is the efforts of slave owners to take control of the federal government and ensure the survival and expansion of slavery. In the speech ( called `` The Crime against Kansas '' ) Sumner ridiculed the honor of elderly South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, portraying Butler 's pro-slavery agenda towards Kansas with the raping of a virgin and characterizing his affection for it in sexual and revolting terms. The next day, Butler 's cousin, the South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks, nearly killed Sumner on the Senate floor with a heavy cane. The action electrified the nation, brought violence to the floor of the Senate, and deepened the North - South split. The violence continued to increase. John Brown led his sons and other followers to plan the murder of settlers who spoke in favor of slavery. At a proslavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek on the night of May 24, the group seized five pro-slavery men from their homes and hacked them to death with broadswords. Brown and his men escaped and began plotting a full - scale slave insurrection to take place at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, with financial support from Boston abolitionists. The pro-slavery Territorial government, serving under President Pierce, had been relocated to Lecompton. In April 1856, a Congressional committee arrived there to investigate voting fraud. The committee found the elections improperly elected by non-residents. President Pierce refused recognition of its findings and continued to authorize the pro-slavery legislature, which the Free State people called the `` Bogus Legislature. '' On July 4, 1856, proclamations of President Pierce led to nearly 500 U.S. Army troops arriving in Topeka from Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley. With their cannons pointed at Constitution Hall and the long fuses lit, Colonel E.V. Sumner, cousin to the senator of the same name beaten on the Senate floor, ordered the dispersal of the Free State Legislature. In August 1856, thousands of pro-slavery men formed into armies and marched into Kansas. That same month, Brown and several of his followers engaged 400 pro-slavery soldiers in the Battle of Osawatomie. The hostilities raged for another two months until Brown departed the Kansas Territory, and a new territorial governor, John W. Geary, took office and managed to prevail upon both sides for peace. This was followed by a fragile peace broken by intermittent violent outbreaks for two more years. The last major outbreak of violence was touched off by the Marais des Cygnes massacre in 1858, in which Border Ruffians killed five Free State men. In all, approximately 56 people died in Bleeding Kansas by the time the violence ended in 1859. Following the commencement of the American Civil War in 1861, additional guerrilla violence erupted on the border between Kansas and Missouri. Legacy Heritage area 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. In popular culture The `` Bleeding Kansas '' episode has been dramatically rendered in countless works of American popular culture, including literature, theater, film, and television. Its many depictions and mentions include : Wildwood Boys ( William Morrow, New York ; 2000 ), a biographical novel of `` Bloody Bill '' Anderson by James Carlos Blake Bleeding Kansas ( 2008 ) by Sara Paretsky, a novel depicting social and political conflicts in present - day Kansas with many references to the 19th - century events The Good Lord Bird ( 2013 ) by James McBride The Outlaw Josey Wales ( 1976 ), an American western film set during and after the Civil War which depicts violence in the aftermath of Bleeding Kansas Bad Blood, the Border War that Triggered the Civil War ( 2007 ), a documentary film ( ISBN 0 - 9777261 - 4 - 2 ) by Kansas City Public Television and Wide Awake Films The November 8, 2014, episode of Hell on Wheels, titled `` Bleeding Kansas '', depicted one occurrence of a white family being slain for having slaves, who were then freed, in the name of religion When Kings Reigned ( 2017 ), a docudrama directed by Ian Ballinger and Alison Dover about fishermen living along the Kansas River during and after the Bleeding Kansas era and the persecution they faced from local governments See also Pottawatomie massacre William Sloan Tough References Jump up ^ Denial, Catherine. `` Bleeding Kansas ''. teachinghistory.org. National History Education Clearinghouse. Retrieved 12 February 2018. Jump up ^ Etcheson, Nicole. `` Bleeding Kansas : From the Kansas - Nebraska Act to Harpers Ferry ''. Civil War on the Western Border : The Missouri - Kansas Conflict, 1854 -- 1865. The Kansas City Public Library. Retrieved 21 July 2018. ^ Jump up to : `` Territorial Politics and Government ''. Territorial Kansas Online. Retrieved June 18, 2014. Jump up ^ Cutler, William G. History of the State of Kansas, A.T. Andreas, ( 1883 ), `` Territorial History, Part 8 ''. Jump up ^ William Frank Zornow, `` Kansas : a history of the Jayhawk State '' ( 1957 ), pg. 72 ^ Jump up to : Olson, Kevin ( 2012 ). Frontier Manhattan. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7006 - 1832 - 3. ^ Jump up to : Report of the special committee appointed to investigate the troubles in Kansas, Cornelius Wendell, 1856, retrieved June 18, 2014 Jump up ^ Richardson, James D. `` A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents ''. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2008 - 03 - 18. Jump up ^ Thomas Goodrich, War to the Knife : Bleeding Kansas, 1854 -- 1861. ( 2004 ). Ch. 1 iii. Jump up ^ Elizabeth R. Varon, Disunion ! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789 -- 1859. ( 2007 ). Ch. 8. Jump up ^ Cutler, William G. History of the State of Kansas, A.T. Andreas, ( 1883 ), `` Territorial History ''. Jump up ^ Cutler, William G. `` Territorial History, Part 55 ''. Jump up ^ Cutler, William G. `` Territorial History, Part 53 ''. Jump up ^ Wyandotte Constitution Approved ^ Jump up to : Kansas Historical Society ( February 2017 ). `` Old Kickapoo Cannon ''. Kansapedia -- Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved June 1, 2018. Jump up ^ Lull, Robert W. `` Civil War General and Indian Fighter James M. Williams : Leader of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and the 8th U.S. Cavalry ''. University of North Texas Press -- via Google Books. Jump up ^ `` Kickapoo Cannon ''. Blackmar 's Cyclopedia of Kansas History. 1912. p. 69. Retrieved June 1, 2018 -- via Kansas State History. Jump up ^ Pfau, Michael William ( 2003 ). `` Time, Tropes, and Textuality : Reading Republicanism in Charles Sumner 's ' Crime Against Kansas ' ''. Rhetoric & Public Affairs. 6 ( 3 ) : 393. doi : 10.1353 / rap. 2003.0070. Jump up ^ Williamjames Hull Hoffer, The Caning of Charles Sumner : Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War ( 2010 ) Jump up ^ Schraff, Anne E. ( 2010 ). John Brown : `` We Came to Free the Slaves ''. Enslow. p. 56. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7660 - 3355 - 9. Jump up ^ Thomas K. Tate ( 2013 ). General Edwin Vose Sumner, USA : A Civil War Biography. McFarland. p. 53. ISBN 9780786472581. Jump up ^ Watts, Dale. `` How Bloody Was Bleeding Kansas ? Political Killings in Kansas territory, 1854 -- 1861 '', Kansas History ( 1995 ) 18 # 2 pgs. 116 -- 29 Jump up ^ Freedom 's Frontier National Heritage Area Management Plan Appendices, Freedomsfrontier.org/ Jump up ^ Hell on Wheels Season 4 Episode 11 Review : Bleeding Kansas Further Reading Childers, Christopher. `` Interpreting Popular Sovereignty : A Historiographical Essay '', Civil War History Volume 57, Number 1, March 2011 pp. 48 -- 70 in Project MUSE Earle, Jonathan and Burke, Diane Mutti. Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri : The Long Civil War on the Border. Lawrence, KS : University Press of Kansas, 2013. Etcheson, Nicole. `` The Great Principle of Self - Government : Popular Sovereignty and Bleeding Kansas '', Kansas History 27 ( Spring - Summer 2004 ) : 14 -- 29, links it to Jacksonian Democracy Etcheson, Nicole. Bleeding Kansas : Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era ( 2006 ) Goodrich, Thomas. War to the Knife : Bleeding Kansas, 1854 -- 1861 ( 2004 ) Johannsen, Robert W. `` Popular Sovereignty and the Territories '', Historian 22 # 4 pp. 378 -- 395, doi : 10.1111 / j. 1540 - 6563.1960. tb01665. x Malin, James C. John Brown and the Legend of Fifty - six. ( 1942 ) Miner, Craig ( 2002 ). Kansas : The History of the Sunflower State, 1854 -- 2000. Nevins, Alan. Ordeal of the Union : vol. 2 A House Dividing, 1852 -- 1857 ( 1947 ), Kansas in national context Nichols, Roy F. `` The Kansas -- Nebraska Act : A Century of Historiography '', Mississippi Valley Historical Review ( 1956 ) 43 # 2 pp. 187 -- 212 in JSTOR Potter, David. The Impending Crisis, 1848 -- 1861 ( 1976 ), Pulitzer Prize ; ch 9, 12 Reynolds, David ( 2005 ). John Brown, Abolitionist. External links 1856 Congressional Report on the Troubles in Kansas Documentary On Bleeding Kansas Kansas State Historical Society : A Look Back at Kansas Territory, 1854 -- 1861 Access documents, photographs, and other primary sources on Kansas Memory, the Kansas State Historical Society 's digital portal NEEAC. History of the New - England Emigrant Aid Company. Boston : John Wilson & Son, 1862. PBS article on Bleeding Kansas. Territorial Kansas Online : A Virtual Repository for Kansas Territorial History. U-S-History.com. Online Exhibit -- Willing to Die for Freedom, Kansas Historical Society Map of North America during Bleeding Kansas at omniatlas.com Armed conflicts involving the United States Armed Forces listed chronologically Domestic Shays ' Rebellion Whiskey Rebellion Fries 's Rebellion Mormon War Dorr Rebellion Bleeding Kansas Utah War Civil War Indian Wars Brooks -- Baxter War Range War Lincoln County War Johnson County War Coal Creek War Homestead strike Battle of Blair Mountain Bonus Army Battle of Athens Foreign Revolutionary War Quasi-War First Barbary War War of 1812 Second Barbary War First Sumatran expedition Second Sumatran expedition Ivory Coast Expedition Mexican -- American War First Fiji Expedition Second Opium War Second Fiji Expedition Formosa Expedition Korean Expedition Spanish -- American War Philippine -- American War Boxer Rebellion Banana Wars Border War World War I Russian Civil War World War II Korean War Vietnam War U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic Invasion of Grenada Lebanese Civil War Invasion of Panama Gulf War Somali Civil War Bosnian War Kosovo War Afghanistan War Iraq War War in North - West Pakistan Libyan Civil War Intervention against ISIL Iraq Syria Cameroon Libya Related articles List of conflicts in the U.S. List of wars involving the U.S. Timeline of U.S. military operations Length of U.S. participation in major wars Overseas expansion Military history Covert regime - change actions Casualties of war Peace movement List of anti-war organizations Conscientious objector War on Terror Missouri in the American Civil War The Civil War in Neighboring States : Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky Pre-War Missouri Compromise Bleeding Kansas Dred Scott Decision Border state 1861 Governor refuses to furnish quota of militia to the United States Seizure of United States Arsenal at Liberty Seizure of United States ordnance stores at Kansas City Capture of Camp Jackson Convention between Brig. Gen. William S. Harney, U.S. Army, and Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, Missouri State Guard Engagement at Boonville Skirmish at Cole Camp Engagement near Carthage Skirmish at Athens Martial law declared in St. Louis Battle of Wilson 's Creek Action at Dry Wood Creek Siege of Lexington Action at Blue Mills Landing Destruction of Osceola Operations about Ironton and Fredericktown Action at Springfield Engagement at Belmont Missouri admitted as a member of the Confederate States of America Brig. Gen. John M. Schofield, U.S. Army, assumes command of the Missouri Militia Skirmish at Blackwater Creek Action at Mount Zion Church 1862 Action at Roan 's Tan - Yard Operations at New Madrid Brig. Gen. Mosby M. Parsons, Mo. S.G., assumes command of the Missouri State Guard Action at Moore 's Mill Action at Kirksville Action at Independence Action at Lone Jack Engagement at Newtonia Skirmish at Island Mound Action at Clark 's Mill 1863 Engagement at Springfield Engagement at Hartville Action at Cape Girardeau Skirmish at Chalk Bluff Enrolled Militia of Missouri placed under command of Maj. Gen. Schofield General Order No. 11 Shelby 's raid in Arkansas and Missouri 1864 Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, C.S. Army, assumes command of the expeditionary forces at Princeton, Ark. Price enters Missouri Affair at Centralia Attack on Fort Davidson Action at Glasgow Action at Lexington Action at the Little Blue Action at Independence Action at the Big Blue Engagement at Westport Engagement at the Marmiton Engagement at Newtonia 1865 Negotiations for the surrender of the Confederate forces in the Trans - Mississippi Department Gen. E. Kirby Smith, C.S. Army, surrenders troops in Trans - Mississippi Department Units Confederate Union People Thomas Ewing Jr. Jesse James Sterling Price William Quantrill E. Kirby Smith Places St. Louis Category Kansas in the American Civil War Pre-War Kansas -- Nebraska Act Bleeding Kansas Wakarusa War Sacking of Lawrence Pottawatomie massacre Battle of Black Jack First and Second Battles of Franklin Battle of Fort Titus Battle of Osawatomie Marais des Cygnes massacre September 1861 Battle of Dry Wood Creek Sacking of Osceola August 1863 Lawrence massacre General Order No. 11 October 1863 Baxter Springs massacre October 1864 Battle of Marais des Cygnes Battle of Mine Creek Category American Civil War Origins Origins Issues Timeline leading to the War Antebellum era Bleeding Kansas Border states Compromise of 1850 Lincoln - Douglas debates Missouri Compromise Nullification Crisis Popular sovereignty Secession States ' rights President Lincoln 's 75,000 volunteers Slavery African Americans Cornerstone Speech Dred Scott v. Sandford Emancipation Proclamation Fire - Eaters Fugitive slave laws Plantations in the American South Slave Power Slavery in the United States Treatment of slaves in the United States Uncle Tom 's Cabin Abolitionism Susan B. Anthony John Brown Frederick Douglass William Lloyd Garrison Elijah Parish Lovejoy J. Sella Martin Lysander Spooner George Luther Stearns Thaddeus Stevens Charles Sumner Caning Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Combatants Theaters Campaigns Battles States Combatants Union ( USA ) Army Navy Marine Corps Revenue Cutter Service Confederacy ( CSA ) Army Navy Marine Corps Theaters Eastern Western Lower Seaboard Trans - Mississippi Pacific Coast Union naval blockade Major Campaigns Anaconda Plan Blockade runners New Mexico Jackson 's Valley Peninsula Northern Virginia Maryland Stones River Vicksburg Tullahoma Gettysburg Morgan 's Raid Bristoe Knoxville Red River Overland Atlanta Valley 1864 Bermuda Hundred Richmond - Petersburg Franklin -- Nashville Price 's Raid Sherman 's March Carolinas Mobile Appomattox Major battles Fort Sumter 1st Bull Run Wilson 's Creek Fort Donelson Pea Ridge Hampton Roads Shiloh New Orleans Corinth Seven Pines Seven Days 2nd Bull Run Antietam Perryville Fredericksburg Stones River Chancellorsville Gettysburg Vicksburg Chickamauga Chattanooga Wilderness Fort Pillow Spotsylvania Cold Harbor Atlanta Mobile Bay Franklin Nashville Five Forks Involvement ( by state or territory ) AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY See also : Chronology of military events in the American Civil War Leaders Confederate Military R.H. Anderson Beauregard Bragg Buchanan Cooper Early Ewell Forrest Gorgas Hill Hood Jackson A.S. Johnston J.E. Johnston Lee Longstreet Morgan Mosby Polk Price Semmes E.K. Smith Stuart Taylor Wheeler Civilian Benjamin Bocock Breckinridge Davis Hunter Mallory Memminger Seddon Stephens Union Military Anderson Buell Burnside Butler Du Pont Farragut Foote Frémont Grant Halleck Hooker Hunt McClellan McDowell Meade Meigs Ord Pope D.D. Porter Rosecrans Scott Sheridan Sherman Thomas Civilian Adams Chase Ericsson Hamlin Lincoln Pinkerton Seward Stanton Stevens Wade Welles Aftermath U.S. Constitution Reconstruction amendments 13th Amendment 14th Amendment 15th Amendment Reconstruction Alabama Claims Brooks -- Baxter War Carpetbaggers Colfax Riot of 1873 Compromise of 1877 Confederate refugees Confederados Eufaula Riot of 1874 Freedmen 's Bureau Freedman 's Savings Bank Homestead acts Southern Homestead Act of 1866 Timber Culture Act of 1873 Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Kirk - Holden War Knights of the White Camelia Ku Klux Klan Racial violence Memphis Riot of 1866 Meridian Riot of 1871 New Orleans Riot of 1866 Pulaski ( Tennessee ) Riot of 1867 South Carolina riots of 1876 Reconstruction acts Habeas Corpus Act 1867 Enforcement Act of 1870 Enforcement Act of February 1871 Enforcement Act of April 1871 Reconstruction treaties Indian Council at Fort Smith Red Shirts Redeemers Scalawags Southern Claims Commission White League post-Reconstruction Commemoration Centennial Civil War Discovery Trail Civil War Roundtables Civil War Trails Program Civil War Trust Confederate History Month Historical reenactment Robert E. Lee Day Disenfranchisement Black Codes Jim Crow Lost Cause mythology Modern display of the Confederate flag Sons of Confederate Veterans Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Southern Historical Society United Confederate Veterans United Daughters of the Confederacy Monuments and memorials Union List of Union Civil War monuments and memorials List of memorials to the Grand Army of the Republic Memorials to Abraham Lincoln Confederate List of Confederate monuments and memorials Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials List of memorials to Robert E. Lee List of memorials to Jefferson Davis Annapolis Roger B. Taney Monument Baltimore Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument Confederate Women 's Monument Roger B. Taney Monument Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson Monument Durham, North Carolina Robert E. Lee Monument New Orleans Battle of Liberty Place Monument Jefferson Davis Monument General Beauregard Equestrian Statue Robert E. Lee Monument Cemeteries Confederate Memorial Day Ladies ' memorial associations U.S. Memorial Day U.S. national cemeteries Veterans 1913 Gettysburg Reunion Confederate Veteran Grand Army of the Republic Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S. Old soldiers ' homes Southern Cross of Honor United Confederate Veterans Related topics Related topics Military Arms Campaign Medal Cavalry Confederate Home Guard Confederate railroads Confederate Revolving Cannon Field artillery Medal of Honor recipients Medicine Leadership Naval battles Official Records Partisan rangers POW camps Rations Signal Corps Turning point Union corps badges U.S. Balloon Corps U.S. Home Guard U.S. Military Railroad Political Committee on the Conduct of the War Confederate States Presidential Election of 1861 Confiscation Act of 1861 Confiscation Act of 1862 Copperheads Emancipation Proclamation Habeas Corpus Act of 1863 Hampton Roads Conference National Union Party Radical Republicans Trent Affair Union leagues U.S. Presidential Election of 1864 War Democrats Music Battle Hymn of the Republic Dixie John Brown 's Body A Lincoln Portrait Marching through Georgia Maryland, My Maryland When Johnny Comes Marching Home Other topics Bibliography Confederate war finance Confederate States dollar Espionage Confederate Secret Service Great Revival of 1863 Naming the war Native Americans Cherokee Choctaw New York City Gold Hoax of 1864 New York City Riot of 1863 Photographers Richmond Riot of 1863 Sexuality Supreme Court cases Tokens U.S. Sanitary Commission Book Category Portal History of the United States Timeline Prehistory Pre-Columbian Colonial 1776 -- 1789 1789 -- 1849 1849 -- 1865 1865 -- 1918 1918 -- 1945 1945 -- 1964 1964 -- 1980 1980 -- 1991 1991 -- 2008 2008 -- present Topics American Century Cities Constitution Demographic Diplomatic Economic Education Immigration Medical Merchant Marine Military Musical Religious Slavery Southern Technological and industrial Territorial acquisitions Territorial evolution Voting rights Women Category Portal Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bleeding_Kansas&oldid=865740780 '' Categories : Political history of the United States Popular sovereignty Bleeding Kansas 1850s in the United States 1854 in the United States 1855 in the United States 1856 in the United States 1857 in the United States 1858 in the United States American Civil War by location Internal wars of the United States Crimes in Kansas Crimes in Missouri Abolitionism in the United States Political violence in the United States Missouri in the American Civil War Kansas in the American Civil War Politically motivated migrations Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from June 2018 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Azərbaycanca Català Deutsch Eesti Español Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Latina Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Türkçe 中文 13 more Edit links This page was last edited on 25 October 2018, at 20 : 53 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what was the cause of the bleeding kansas
Answer: a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas