Free Staters and Border Ruffians
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A little history about Lawrence, KS.
Bleeding Kansas, referred to in the history of Kansas, was a sequence of violent events involving Free-Staters (anti-slavery) and pro-slavery elements that took place in Kansas–Nebraska Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri between roughly 1854 and 1858.
By 1863, Kansas had long been the home of strife and warfare, from both sides of the slavery versus Free State issue. In the summer of 1856, the first sacking of Lawrence sparked a guerrilla war in Kansas that was conducted for months. Lawrence, Kansas had, by the beginning of the American Civil War, already become the target for pro-slavery ire, having been seen as the anti-slavery stronghold in the state. There was also organized immigration to Kansas from southern states, most notably Missouri, to secure the expansion of slavery. Proslavery settlements were established at Leavenworth and Atchison.
Few of the Border Ruffians actually owned slaves; they were too poor. What motivated them was hatred of the Yankees and abolitionists and the prospect of free blacks living in neighboring areas. Southerners were driven by the rhetoric of leaders such as David Rice Atchison, a Missouri senator, who proclaimed the Northerners to be "negro thieves" and "abolitionist tyrants." He encouraged Missourians to defend their institution "with the bayonet and with blood" and, if necessary, "to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district."
the river as you enter the downtown Lawrence area today.
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A little history about Lawrence, KS.
Bleeding Kansas, referred to in the history of Kansas, was a sequence of violent events involving Free-Staters (anti-slavery) and pro-slavery elements that took place in Kansas–Nebraska Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri between roughly 1854 and 1858.
By 1863, Kansas had long been the home of strife and warfare, from both sides of the slavery versus Free State issue. In the summer of 1856, the first sacking of Lawrence sparked a guerrilla war in Kansas that was conducted for months. Lawrence, Kansas had, by the beginning of the American Civil War, already become the target for pro-slavery ire, having been seen as the anti-slavery stronghold in the state. There was also organized immigration to Kansas from southern states, most notably Missouri, to secure the expansion of slavery. Proslavery settlements were established at Leavenworth and Atchison.
Few of the Border Ruffians actually owned slaves; they were too poor. What motivated them was hatred of the Yankees and abolitionists and the prospect of free blacks living in neighboring areas. Southerners were driven by the rhetoric of leaders such as David Rice Atchison, a Missouri senator, who proclaimed the Northerners to be "negro thieves" and "abolitionist tyrants." He encouraged Missourians to defend their institution "with the bayonet and with blood" and, if necessary, "to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district."
the river as you enter the downtown Lawrence area today.
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posted by tinman | 11:12 AM
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