page_title: Marais des Cygnes massacre
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Marais des Cygnes massacre / Background
caption_attribution_description: Site of the 1858 Marais des Cygnes Massacre, in Linn County, Kansas. This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 71000317
context_page_description: The Marais des Cygnes massacre happened on May 19, 1858 near the town of Trading Post, Kansas. It was the last violent episode in the period known as Bleeding Kansas. Border Ruffians led by Charles Hamilton stopped in the small village of Trading Post in Lynn County, Kansas on their to West Point, Missouri. Hamilton had previously been driven from his land in Lynn County by free-staters and abolitionists. He came back to seek revenge. They captured eleven free-state men, all of whom Hamilton had a grudge against. The captives were marched into a nearby ravine where the Missourians opened fire on them. The story got national attention in the press. Eastern newspapers including the New York Times printed the story. Anti-slavery groups called the victims martyrs. In 1974, the site of the massacre was designated a National Historic Landmark.
context_section_description: In 1854, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act began a policy known as popular sovereignty in the United States. It allowed settlers in the Kansas Territory to decide by popular vote whether Kansas would be admitted to the United States as a slave or free state. This led activists from both sides of the issue to flood into Kansas trying to influence the outcome. It led to a period of violence that continued into the American Civil War.
  In Lynn County, trouble between free-state and pro-slavery settlers began in about 1856. This was when a large group of pro-slavery Southerners came through the area destroying property and capturing free-state settlers. One of those who escaped the Southerners was James Montgomery. He became the leader of the free-state settlers in the area called Jayhawkers. Various encounters between the two groups went on until 1857 when James H, Lane assembled a company of free-state men to harass the pro-slavery forces in Kansas and Western Missouri. When Lane's company disbanded, James Montgomery took over. He ordered the pro-slavery leaders out of the county. Many did leave and returned to Missouri. Charles A. Hamilton was one who left Kansas, but with bitter feelings. Hamilton called a meeting together at Papinville, Missouri to get men for an invasion of Kansas. It was decided they would eliminate the free-state settlers living in Lynn County.
caption: Site of the 1858 Marais des Cygnes Massacre, in Linn County, Kansas
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