Bleeding Kansas Bleeding Kansas , Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations involving anti - slavery Free - Staters and pro - slavery " Border Ruffian " elements , that took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of Missouri between 1854 and 1861 . At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state . As such , Bleeding Kansas was a proxy war between Northerners and Southerners over the issue of slavery in the United States . The term " Bleeding Kansas " was coined by Horace Greeley of the " New York Tribune " ; the events it encompasses directly presaged the American Civil War , as well as the future relationship between Kansas and Missouri . Congress had long struggled to balance the interests of pro - and anti - slavery forces . The events later known as Bleeding Kansas were set into motion by the Kansas – Nebraska Act of 1854 , which nullified the Missouri Compromise and instead implemented the concept of popular sovereignty . An ostensibly democratic idea , popular sovereignty stated that the inhabitants of each territory or state should decide whether it would be a free or slave state ; however , this resulted in immigration " en masse " to Kansas by activists from both sides . At one point , Kansas had two separate governments , each with its own constitution , although only one was federally recognized . On January 29 , 1861 , Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state , less than three months before the Battle of Fort Sumter which began the Civil War . Origins . The Kansas - Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska , and opened the lands to settlement by white settlers . The impetus for this was said by some to be for the purposes of building the Pacific Railroad . The Act also established that the question of whether slavery would be allowed in the new states of Kansas and Nebraska would be decided by the inhabitants of the states – essentially repealing the Missouri Compromise . The concept of letting the settlers decide , now known as " popular sovereignty " , was an idea advocated by US Senator Stephen A . Douglas , chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories . Popular sovereignty was an attempt to offer concessions to the Southern states by making possible the expansion of slavery into both western and northern territories . While this doctrine , also known in Kansas Territory as " squatter sovereignty " , was not actually formulated by US Senator Lewis Cass , he nevertheless earned the sobriquet " Father of Popular Sovereignty " by providing its ideological framework in a letter published in the " Washington Daily Union , " which later also secured for Cass the presidential nomination of the Democratic party . Initially , it was assumed that few slave owners would attempt to settle in Kansas and make it a slave state , because it was thought to be too far north for profitable exploitation of slaves . However , the eastern portion of Kansas along the Missouri River was as suitable for slave - based agriculture as the nearby " black belt " of Missouri in which most of Missouri ' s slaves were held . The settlement and the zone formation of the state government in Kansas became highly politicized beyond the borders of the territory . There were a number of reasons for this . Missouri , a slave state , was uniquely exposed to free states , with Illinois and Iowa bordering it on the east and north . Most parts of Missouri held very few slaves , and slave owners were a very small proportion of the state ' s population . If Kansas entered the Union as a free state , Missouri would have free soil on three sides . As manumission , abolition activity , and escape were all more common in the border states , the existence of nearby free - soil was a threat to Missouri ' s slave owners . Also , in the United States Senate , each state is apportioned two senate seats . A rough balance had existed between free and slave states , but each addition of a state threatened to tip the balance , disrupting the status quo ( see Slave Power ) . Meeting of North and South . The first organized immigration to Kansas Territory was by citizens of slave states , most notably neighboring Missouri , who came to the territory to secure the expansion of slavery . Pro - slavery settlements were established by these immigrants at Leavenworth and Atchison . At the same time , several anti - slavery organizations in the North , most notably the New England Emigrant Aid Company , were organizing to fund several thousand settlers to move to Kansas and vote to make it a free state . These organizations helped to establish Free - State settlements further into the territory , in Topeka , Manhattan , and Lawrence . Abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher collected funds to arm like - minded settlers with Sharps rifle s , leading to the precision rifles becoming known as " Beecher ' s Bibles " . By the summer of 1855 , approximately 1 , 200 New England Yankees had made the journey to the new territory , armed and ready to fight . Rumors spread through the South that 30 , 000 Northerners were descending on Kansas , and in November 1854 , thousands of armed pro - slavery men known as " Border Ruffians " , mostly from Missouri , poured over the line in an attempt to counteract this influence and sway the election to Congress of a single territorial delegate . Fewer than half the ballots were cast by registered voters , and at one location , only 20 of every 600 voters were legal residents . The pro - slavery forces won the election . While Kansas had approximately 1 , 500 registered voters at the time , not all of whom actually voted , over 6 , 000 votes were cast . More significantly , the Border Ruffians repeated their actions on March 30 , 1855 when the first territorial legislature was elected , swaying the vote again in favor of slavery . The proslavery territorial legislature convened in Pawnee on July 2 , 1855 , but after one week it adjourned to the Shawnee Mission on the Missouri border , where it began passing laws to institutionalize slavery in Kansas Territory . In August 1855 , a group of Free - Soilers met and resolved to reject the proslavery laws passed by the territorial legislature . This meeting led to the drafting of the Topeka Constitution and the formation of a shadow government . In a message to Congress on January 24 , 1856 , President Franklin Pierce declared the Free - State Topeka government to be a " revolution " against the rightful leaders . Later , in April 1856 , a three - man congressional committee investigated the vote . The majority report of the committee found the elections to be improperly influenced . Open violence . In October 1855 , John Brown came to Kansas Territory to fight slavery . On November 21 , 1855 the ( relatively bloodless ) " Wakarusa War " began when a Free - Stater named Charles Dow was shot by a pro - slavery settler . The only fatal casualty occurring during the siege was one Free - State man named Thomas Barber . He was shot and killed on December 6 , 1855 where the main body of the invaders were encamped , some from Lawrence . A few months later , on May 21 , 1856 , a group of Border Ruffians entered the Free - State stronghold of Lawrence , where they burned the Free State Hotel , destroyed two newspaper offices and their printing presses , and ransacked homes and stores . The following day , on the afternoon of May 22 , 1856 , South Carolina Democrat Preston Brooks physically attacked Massachusetts Free Soil Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chambers , hitting him on the head with his thick cane . Sumner was blinded by his own blood , and staggered away until he collapsed , lapsing into unconsciousness . Brooks continued to beat Sumner until his cane broke . Several other senators attempted to help Sumner , but were blocked by Rep . Laurence Keitt , holding a pistol and shouting " Let them be ! " , as retaliation for insulting language Sumner had used against a relative of Brooks in a speech denouncing Southerners for pro - slavery violence in Kansas . Sumner did not return to his Senate desk for three years as a result of his injuries to the head and neck area . These acts in turn inspired Brown to lead a group of men in Kansas Territory on an attack at a proslavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek . During the night of May 24 , the group , which included four of Brown ' s sons , led five pro - slavery men from their homes and hacked them to death with broadswords . Of the men initially taken captive during the three cabin raids that night , Brown ' s men let two of them — Jerome Glanville and James Harris — return home to Harris ' cabin after questioning them regarding their involvement in violence against free - state settlers and being satisfied that they had not participated in any ( the other man taken from that cabin , William Sherman , did not fare as well and was killed with swords at the edge of a nearby creek ) . On June 2 , 1856 , Brown took future Confederate Colonel Henry Clay Pate and almost two dozen other pro - slavery soldiers prisoner at the Battle of Black Jack . In 1856 , the official territorial capital was moved to Lecompton , a town only from Lawrence . In April 1856 , a three - man congressional investigating committee arrived in Lecompton to look into the troubles . The majority report of the committee found the elections to be improperly influenced by Border Ruffians . President Pierce failed to follow its recommendations and continued to recognize the pro - slavery legislature as the legitimate government of Kansas . In fact , on July 4 , 1856 , the president sent federal troops to break up an attempted meeting of the shadow government in Topeka . In August 1856 , thousands of proslavery men formed into armies and marched into Kansas . That same month , Brown and several of his followers engaged 400 proslavery 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 . Constitutional fight . An adjunct to the guerrilla warfare in Bleeding Kansas was the fight over the constitution that would govern the state of Kansas . Several constitutions were drafted , including the 1855 Topeka Constitution , which created the shadow Free - State government to resist the illegitimate government voted in by unregistered Missourian voters . In 1857 , a Kansas constitutional convention was convened , which drafted what has become known as the " Lecompton Constitution " , a pro - slavery document . The abolitionist forces boycott ed the ratification vote because it failed to offer them a means to vote against slavery . The Lecompton Constitution was accepted by President James Buchanan , who urged acceptance and statehood . Congress disagreed and ordered another election . In the second election the pro - slavery forces boycotted the process , allowing the anti - slavery forces to claim victory by defeating the document . In the end , the Lecompton Constitution died because it was not clear whether it represented the will of the majority . In mid - 1859 , the Wyandotte Constitution was drafted ; this document represented the prevailing abolitionist view . It was approved by the electorate by a 2 - to - 1 margin , and Kansas entered the Union as a free state pursuant to its terms on January 29 , 1861 . Heritage Area . In 2006 , legislation that enabled a new " Freedom ' s Frontier National Heritage Area " ( FFNHA ) was passed by Congress . The heritage area is tasked with describing the story behind the Missouri / Kansas border war , the story of settlement , and the enduring struggle for freedom in the region to the present . FFNHA comprises 41 counties , 29 of which are in eastern and east - central Kansas and 12 of which are in western Missouri . " Bad Blood , the Border War that Triggered the Civil War " a documentary DVD ( ISBN 0 - 9777261 - 42 )