The anti-slavery and pro-slavery people tried to win by writing a constitution that would make the other side lose. Anti-slavery people would try to write a constitution that made slavery illegal, and pro-slavery people would try to write a constitution that would make slavery legal. Congress would decide which one to choose.
On November 11, 1855, free-staters wrote the Topeka Constitution. The constitution made slavery illegal. They voted for the constitution on December 15, 1855, and they sent it to Congress in March 1856. It passed the House of Representatives, but it failed in the Senate. This was because the Senate had many pro-slavery people in it.
On November 7, 1857, pro-slavery people wrote the Lecompton Constitution. The constitution allowed slavery, but there was a vote on it. Both pro-slavery and anti-slavery people tried to stop the votes and the constitution. Eventually, it was sent to Congress. It failed in Congress because they were not able to decide if the people actually liked it.
A very anti-slavery legislature wrote the Leavenworth Constitution on April 3, 1858. On May 18, 1858, the people of Kansas voted for it. This constitution made slavery illegal, and it also gave more rights to women. It failed in Congress. All of this happened while the Lecompton Constitution was being written.
On July 29, 1859, the Wyandotte Constitution was written. The people of Kansas voted for it on October 4, 1859. This constitution made slavery illegal, but it did not have the rights for women (unlike the Leavenworth Constitution). Kansas became a free state on January 29, 1861.
When the Wyandotte Constitution was being written, pro-slavery people knew they had lost. When the pro-slavery people realized this and when John Brown left the state, the violence in Kansas stopped in 1859.
Kansas became the 34th state on January 29, 1861.
There were many important events that happened in Kansas during the 1860s. Kansas was in the Civil War, there were cattle drives, early prohibition, and the start of the American Indian Wars in western Kansas.
The Wyandotte Constitution made Kansas a free state. The people of Kansas liked the Union. Kansas stayed in the Union. Pro-slavery people still attacked Kansas. Many of these pro-slavery people were from Missouri.
At the start of the Civil War, Kansas had no official army. They had no weapons or supplies. In 1859 and 1860, the military in Kansas were not used. They simply stopped.
There were 29 Confederate attacks on Kansas. The worst was Quantrill's Raid in Lawrence in 1863. It was a response to many "Jayhawker" attacks on Missouri.
After Union Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, Jr. ordered to put women in prison who had gave aid to Confederate guerrillas, the jail's roof fell. This killed five people. These deaths made the guerrillas in Missouri angry. On August 21, 1863, William Quantrill led Quantrill's Raid into Lawrence. He burned much of the city. They killed over 150 men and boys. Quantrill said the attack was okay to do because it would revenge for any bad things that the jayhawkers did to the Southerners.
The Battle of Baxter Springs (sometimes called the Baxter Springs Massacre) was a small battle in the War. It happened on October 6, 1863, near the modern-day town of Baxter Springs, Kansas. The Battle of Mine Creek, also known as the Battle of the Osage, was a cavalry battle. It happened in Kansas during the war.
On October 25, 1864, the Battle of Marais des Cygnes happened in Linn County, Kansas. This Battle of Trading Post was between Major General Sterling Price and Union forces under Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Price was pushed out by Union forces. This was after he had run away from Kansas City due to a defeat.
Fort Larned (central Kansas) was built in 1859 as a base of military operations against hostile Native Americans of the Central Plains. It was also built to protect traffic along the Santa Fe Trail. After 1861, it became an agency for the administration of the Central Plains Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the terms of the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861.
In 1863, the Union Pacific Eastern Division (renamed the Kansas Pacific in 1869) was created by the United States Congress's Pacific Railway Act. It was created to create the southern part of the transcontinental railroad alongside the Union Pacific. Pacific Railway Act also created large land grants to the railroad along its mainline. The company started construction on its main line west from Kansas City in September 1863.
Many railroads were planned after the Civil War, but not all were actually built. The Panic of 1873 made it difficult to fund. Land speculators and local boosters identified many potential towns. Towns that were reached by the railroad had a chance, while the others became ghost towns. In Kansas, nearly 5000 towns were mapped out. However, by 1970 only 617 were actually used. In the mid-20th century, closeness to an interstate exchange determined whether town would survive or struggle.
After the Civil War, railroads did not go to Texas. Instead, they brought their cattle to Kansas. Once in Kansas, the cattle would be sent on a train going east on the Kansas Pacific Railway.
In 1871, Wild Bill Hickok became marshal of Abilene, Kansas. He fought John Wesley Hardin there. After Hickok disarmed him, he ran away. Hickok was also a deputy marshal at Fort Riley. He was also a marshal at Hays in the Wild West. In the 1880s at Greensburg, Kansas, a big well was built to get water for the Santa Fe and Rock Island railroads. It is deep and in diameter. This makes it one of the world's biggest hand-dug wells.
Coronado, Kansas was created in 1885. It was involved in one of the bloodiest county seat fights in the history of the American West. The shoot-out on February 27, 1887 left many people dead and wounded.
In 1879, many black people left southern states and came to Kansas. They came because there was cheap land and better treatment. These people were called exodusters. They created small towns in Kansas like Nicodemus, Kansas in 1877.
On February 19, 1881, Kansas became the first state to make alcohol illegal. This started with the temperance movement. After 1890, prohibition and progressivism came together. This created a reform movement. This movement led to four reformist governors being elected from 1905 to 1919. Those governors wanted extreme prohibitionist laws. Kansas did not make alcohol legal again until 1948. Kansas did not allow public bars to be legal until 1987. Kansas did not allow people to buy alcohol on Sundays until 2005. Many cities still do not allow that. 29 counties in Kansas are considered "dry."
Early residents found that Kansas was not the "Great American Desert". However, they found that the weather and environment of Kansas can be very difficult to live in. Tornadoes, blizzards, droughts, hail, floods, and grasshoppers made it difficult to grow crops. Many early residents lost a lot of money trying to be a farmer in Kansas. In the 1890s, many of these people joined the Populist movement, or they moved east. In the 20th century, new technology, crop insurance, and help from the federal government made farming easier. Many immigrants (many of which were German) came to Kansas in the 20th century. They came because they heard Kansas had good dirt, cheap land, and they could get 160 acres of land to keep for free (if they were American citizens).