page_title: Lawrence, Kansas
section_title: "Bleeding Kansas"
hierarchical_section_title: Lawrence, Kansas / History / "Bleeding Kansas"
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruins of Free State Hotel after Sacking of Lawrence. Image from State Historical Society of Missouri.
context_page_description: Lawrence is a city in Douglas County in the state of Kansas in the United States. It is in the northeastern part of the state, near the Kansas City area. It is the county seat of Douglas County. In 2010, 87,643 people lived there; though in 2019, there were an estimated 98,193 people. This makes it the sixth-biggest city in Kansas. The University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University are in Lawrence.
  The New England Emigrant Aid Company created Lawrence in 1854. It is named after Amos Adams Lawrence, who gave financial support to the city. During Bleeding Kansas, Lawrence was where the Wakarusa War and the Sack of Lawrence happened. Lawrence is also the site of the Lawrence Massacre which happened during the American Civil War.
  Lawrence started as an important place for free-state politics. After that, Lawrence's economy grew to be in many industries. These industries include agriculture, manufacturing, and education. Lawrence is called a "college town" because the University of Kansas is an important part of the city. There are many places in town where students like to go.
context_section_description: At the start of 1855, the free-staters and the pro-slavery people around Lawrence started fighting for political power. At the Kansas elections on March 30, 1865, about 700-1,000 pro-slavery people from Missouri voted at the election. They came in more than 100 wagons. They had guns, rifles, pistols, and Bowie knives. They also brought two pieces of artillery. No one argued with them because there were a lot of them. They went back to Missouri the next day. Before the election, the government did a census which showed that 8,601 people lived in Kansas. Of those 2,905 were voters; Lawrence had 369 voters. There were a total of 2,905 voters in the territory, but there were 6,307 votes counted. 1,034 votes were cast in Lawrence, but 802 were from people who did not live in Kansas. Only 232 of the votes were real. At the election, a man named Silas Bond was shot at, and he ran away. He was shot at because he was "an obnoxious free-state man."
  On August 27, 1855, the pro-slavery people were happy when the Governor Daniel Woodson chose a pro-slavery man, Samuel J. Jones, to be the county sheriff. In October 1855, the anti-slavery man John Brown came to Kansas. He brought many guns to give to other anti-slavery people.
  In June 1855, the people of Lawrence had a meeting and decided to resist any laws the Kansas legislature passed. They believed the legislature was elected by armed Missouri people, not Kansas people. Amos Lawrence and others sent crates full of rifles. They wrote on the crates that the things inside were books because "the border ruffians had no use for books," so they did not take the rifles when they came to Lawrence. Horace Greeley helped send a howitzer to Lawrence.
  On November 21, 1855, the pro-slavery man Franklin N. Coleman shot anti-slavery man Charles Dow in the head. This killed him. This happened after many angry arguments between them about land claims. When Sheriff Samuel Jones investigated the crime, Franklin Coleman said he shot Charles Dow in self-defense. Jones believed Coleman because they both were pro-slavery men. Jones decided to arrest Jacob Branson, a friend of Charles Dow and an anti-slavery man, for disturbing the peace. A group of anti-slavery people saved Branson.
  Wilson Shannon, the governor of the Kansas Territory, saw that the people were becoming very angry and violent. He asked the Kansas militia to come and keep the peace. Shannon wanted the people in the militia to be from Kansas, but Samuel Jones brought 1,200-1,500 men from Missouri. When the people of Lawrence learned this, they made a militia of 600-800 men. They chose Robinson to lead the militia. James H. Lane was chosen as his second-in-command. John Brown and his four sons also joined to fight. Both groups were ready to fight, but they could not because the winter was very cold. Wilson Shannon decided to prevent a fight. He demanded that the leaders of both sides agree to a peace treaty. They did, and the men from Missouri went back to Missouri. This "war" is known as the Wakarusa War.
  In spring 1856, pro-slavery people wanted to make the free-staters weak. The pro-slavery people said that the Herald of Freedom newspaper, the Kansas Free State newspaper, and the Eldridge Hotel were very bad. On April 23, 1856, Samuel Jones came to Lawrence. He tried to arrest some anti-slavery people who had created their own anti-slavery government. A sniper shot Samuel Jones, but he did not die. The people of Lawrence made Jones leave. On May 11, Federal Marshall (like a police officer but for the entire country) Israel B. Donaldson said that people interfered with Samuel Jones which was not legal. A Kansas grand jury agreed. They said that Lawrence built the Free State Hotel (the Eldridge Hotel) for military purposes. Donaldson, Jones, and others recruited an army of 800 men to enforce the law. However, they also wanted to stop the anti-slavery men in Lawrence.
  On May 21, Donaldson and Jones took their army to Lawrence. They arrested more anti-slavery people. The people of Lawrence hoped that Donaldson and Jones would leave after the a
caption: The Free State Hotel after the 1856 Sacking of Lawrence.
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