Bleeding Kansas

**Bleeding Kansas** was a border war on the Kansas-Missouri border. It started with the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 and continued into the American Civil War (1854–1861). This violent conflict resulted from people's strong beliefs for or against slavery.

The  was created by Horace Greeley of the *New York Tribune,* who used it to describe the violence happening in the Kansas territory during the mid-to-late 1850s. Among them were several tribes of Native Americans, including the Plains Indian tribes of the Kaw, the Osage, and the Pawnee . The Southern United States was dependent on agriculture and on the 4 million slaves who did the work on Southern plantations. Missouri was admitted as a pro-slavery state under the Missouri Compromise. Slaveowners in Missouri were against having a free state on the state's western border, since runaway slaves could escape there. The legislature would decide whether the territory would allow slavery, so it was an important election. 

Just like during the November 1854 election, "Border Ruffians" from Missouri again went into the territory to vote. Supporters of slavery were elected to 37 of the 39 seats. According to the report, many of the legislators were illegally elected and the legislature "had no power to pass  laws." Another Free-Stater, Thomas Barber, was shot and killed. 

### Arson & looting 
On May 21, 1856, Missourians invaded Lawrence and burned the Free State Hotel. They also destroyed two newspaper offices, and ransacked homes and stores. In the speech called "The Crime against Kansas," Sumner d the honor of elderly South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler. He compared Butler's pro-slavery agenda towards Kansas with the rape of a virgin, and described Butler's affection for it in sexually-explicit and  terms. 

The next day, Butler's cousin, South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks, nearly killed Sumner on the Senate floor with a heavy cane. The action shocked the nation, brought violence to the floor of the Senate, and deepened the sectional split.

### John Brown 
In October 1855, abolitionist John Brown had come from Ohio to Kansas Territory to fight slavery. As the violence continued, Brown led his sons and other followers to plan the murder of pro-slavery settlers. At a pro-slavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek on the night of May 24, 1856, the group seized five pro-slavery men from their homes and  them to death with broadswords. Brown and his men escaped and started making a plan for a full-scale slave insurrection to take place at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. They were later proved to have had financial support from Boston abolitionists. The pro-slavery territorial government was relocated to Lecompton.

In August 1856, thousands of pro-slavery men formed into armies and marched into Kansas. The same month, Brown and several of his followers engaged 400 pro-slavery militia at the "Battle of Osawatomie." The  continued for another two months until Brown left the Kansas Territory. The new territorial governor, John W. Geary, took office and asked both sides for peace. 

Once Geary became governor, there was peace. However, the peace was broken by violent outbreaks for two more years. The last major outbreak of violence was the 1858 Marais des Cygnes massacre, in which Border Ruffians killed five Free-State men. In all, about 56 people died during the Bleeding Kansas era.

## Kansas statehood 
The political process that led to statehood for Kansas was long and difficult. To become a state, Kansas had to give an acceptable constitution to the U.S. Congress. Kansas tried to become a state four times. They had four different constitutions given.

### Lecompton Constitution 
A year passed with little change. However, James Buchanan was elected president of the United States. When a bill asking for another convention had been sent to the new territorial governor, James Denver for approval, he ignored it. Many of the pro-slavery men from Missouri lost interest in the political affairs of Kansas. Many of the more radical abolitionists did the same. The territorial legislature proceeded to find a way for Kansas to become a state. On February 9, 1859, the legislature passed an act to create another constitutional convention. The new governor, Samuel Medary, signed the bill. A vote was held on March 28 and showed 5,306 Kansans for the measure and 1,425 against it. By then, Kansas was widely thought to be a free state if it was approved for statehood. However, other issues were being debated such as state borders, suffrage, and temperance. Delegates to the convention were elected and on July 5 met at Wyandotte, a town that later became part of Kansas City. On July 29, the Wyandotte Constitution was adopted without the signatures of many of the Democrats at the convention. It was presented to the people of Kansas on October 4 and was approved by a vote of 10,421 to 5,530.

The U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill in February 1860 for statehood that passed. In the U.S. Senate, however, the measure stalled and went to the Committee on Territories for three months before it came back to the Senate floor. The committee had recommended for it not be passed. Debates on the measure went back and forth, but nothing was done because of upcoming presidential election. In the election, Abraham Lincoln won the presidency. The Southern states then seceded from the Union. With Congress cleared of those against Kansas becoming a free state, the measure was passed. Buchanan was still president but signed the bill making Kansas the 34th state. The Wyandotte Constitution became the Kansas Constitution.

## Related pages 
* Kansas
* Kansas in the American Civil War
* Pro-slavery (United States)
* Free-Stater (Kansas)
* Abolitionism
* Slavery in the United States

## References