1. Kansas-Nebraska Act

2. Kansas Territory
The Saga of
Bleeding Kansas
(Ch. 4, 66-95)

3. John Steuart Curry painted the mural “Tragic Prelude” in the State Capital in Topeka, depicting John Brown and the anti-slavery movement in the Kansas Territory

4. John Brown- Iconic Figure
University of Kansas
Kansas State University

5. Bleeding Kansas
“God sees it. I have only a short time to live – only one death to die, and I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done for. I will give them something else to do than to extend slave territory. I will carry the war into Africa.” ~ John Brown to his son, while seeing Osawatomie burn, August 30, 1856

6. John Brown ( )
Abolitionist willing to use violence to end slavery
After leaving Kansas Terr., he led raid on the federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry in Virginia
Convicted and hanged for murder, treason and slave insurrection against the state of Virginia.
Became a martyr for the abolitionist cause

7. Missouri Compromise of 1820
Allowed two new states to enter Union
Maine become a free state; Missouri a slave state
Banned slavery in the lands of the Louisiana Purchase, including the land that would become Kansas

8. Missouri Compromise of 1820

9. Compromise of 1850
California entered Union as free state; but the Fugitive Slave Act would be adopted.
Fugitive Slave Act – all citizens were required to assist in the recovery of slaves and fugitive slaves were denied the right of jury trial.

10. Compromise of 1850

11. Stephen Douglas US Senator from Illinois known as the “Little Giant”
Helped pass Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
He was an expansionist and promoted popular sovereignty

12. Popular sovereignty - people who lived in the territories were given the right to decide on the issue of slavery
Expansionist - the US should expand boundaries to include much of the continent

13. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
One of the most important documents in US history; consequences led to the Civil War ( )
Repealed the Missouri Compromise ban on slavery
Opened up the Kansas and Nebraska territories for settlement.
Those opposed to slavery opposed K-N Act.

14. Proslavery or Antislavery
Abolitionists - people who thought slavery immoral and should be abolished without delay
Free-Staters – people who did want slavery to expand into the territories
Proslavery settlers founded Atchison

15. Name Calling!
Border ruffians – Missourians who crossed over the border to influence outcome of the slavery issue in the Kansas Territory
Bushwhackers - Missourians who jumped the border to make raids on antislavery settlements
Jayhawkers - Kansans who raided Missouri

16. The Kansas Emigrant Song by John Greenleaf Whittier
Whittier wrote poetry to campaign against slavery
Wrote The Kansas Emigrant Song to persuade antislavery people to settle in Kansas Terr.

17. The Kansas Emigrant Song
We cross the prairie as of old, The pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free. We go to the rear of a wall of men On Freedom’s Southern line. And plant beside the cotton tree, The rugged Northern pine!

18. The Kansas Emigrant Song
Unbearing, like the ark of old,
The Bible in our van
We go to test the truth of God
Against the fraud of man.
No pause, nor rest, save where the streams
That freed the Kansas run,
Save where our Pilgrim [banner]
Shall flout the setting sun!

19. Kansas Emigrant Song What imagery and symbols does Whittier use?
What are the references to North and South?
What does the word “van” mean in this context?
Assignment: Write a verse trying to persuade people to come to Kansas

20. Bleeding Kansas
National attention focused on the violence over slavery, giving rise to the name Bleeding Kansas
About 50 people lost their lives during the territorial period

21. Bleeding Kansas The Wakarusa War and the Siege of Lawrence
Lawrence was under siege for a week
Attack on Lawrence made national news

22. Bleeding Kansas
If any man or woman stand in your way, blow them to [h#**] with a cold chunk of lead!” ~ Sen. Atchison , urging on proslavery forces as they pillaged Lawrence

23. Bleeding Kansas The Pottawatomie Massacre (May 24-25, 1856)
Reacting to the sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces and the caning of Senator Sumner, Brown and other abolitionists killed five pro-slavery activists in Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County by hacking them to death.
Brown emerged as national figure
This brutal act plunged the Kansas Territory further into civil war

24. Bleeding Kansas and John Brown
“He [John Brown] said if a man stood between him and what he considered right, he would take his life as coolly as he would eat his breakfast. His actions show what he is. Always restless, he seems never to sleep. With an eye like a snake, he looks like a demon.” ~ Affidavit quote of Mahala Doyle, widow of James P. Doyle

25. Timeline
1820 – Missouri Compromise bans slavery in what would be the Kansas Terr.
1850 – Compromise of 1850 allows California to enter Union as a free state . The Fugitive Slave Act is passed.
1854 – Kansas- Nebraska Act creates two new territories and allows settlers to choose whether slavery will be allowed there
1855 – Bogus Legislature meets. The Wakarusa War erupts. The Topeka Constitutional Convention is held
1856 – Attack on Lawrence and Pottawatomie Massacre
1857 – Dred Scott Decision. Supreme Court rules slaves are not citizens of the US. Lecompton Constitutional Convention is held.

26. Slavery in Kansas
Underground Railroad - a series of secret safe houses that assisted escaping slaves
Ann Clark – a slave from Lecompton who escaped on the Underground Railroad.

27. Bleeding Kansas Marais des Cygnes Massacre (May 19, 1858)
Proslavery forces captured 11 men and shot them. Five died, five were wounded and one escaped by pretending to be dead
Last major violent act in Kansas Territory

28. Pony Express
Ran between St. Joseph, MO, and Sacramento, CA, for about 2,000 miles; 11 stations in Kansas Territory
Each rider rode about 33 miles
Lasted 18 months, from April 1860 until October (Closed days after transcontinental telegraph connected Omaha to Sacramento)

29. Pony Express Hollenberg Station (near Hanover)

30. James Lane ( )
Antislavery supporter who organized 400 settlers from northern states to come to Kansas Terr.
Lane’s Army of the North
One of the first U.S. senators from Kansas

31. James Lane
Before moving to Kansas Territory, Lane voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a U.S. representative from Indiana
Lane called slave owners “wolves, snakes, devils”

32. David Rice Atchison (1807-1886)
US senator from Missouri who encouraged proslavery forces to come to the Kansas Terr. and vote illegally
Namesake of Atchison, Kansas, a town originally settled by slaveholding pioneers
He said, “The prosperity of the whole South depends on the Kansas struggle.”

33. Charles Robinson ( )
Antislavery advocate; led settlers to Kansas from Massachusetts with the New England Emigrant Aid Company
Elected governor at Topeka and Wyandotte conventions
First Governor of the state of Kansas

34. Charles Robinson
“It is for us to choose for ourselves, and for those who shall come after us, what institutions shall bless or curse our beautiful Kansas. Shall we have freedom for all her people, and consequent prosperity, or slavery for a part, with the blight and mildew inseparable from it?”
~ Charles Robinson

35. Samuel Jones ( )
Proslavery sheriff of Douglas County attacked Lawrence and burned down newspaper offices and other buildings Referring to the destruction of Lawrence, Jones was quoted as saying, “This is the happiest day of my life, I assure you.”

36. Clarina Nichols ( )
Abolitionist who fought for the rights of women
Came to Kansas Terr. with the New England Emigrant Aid Society
Guest of the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention
Helped women get right to vote in local school board elections

37. Andrew Reeder ( )
President Franklin Pierce appointed him first governor of Kansas Territory
Believed in popular sovereignty
Sided with the free-staters, which angered proslavery forces
Enemies charged him with treason and forced to escape in disguise

38. Topeka Constitution (1855)
First Constitution
Written by Free-Staters and prohibited slavery
Approved by large majority; (Proslavery forces refused to vote)
Failed to pass in the U.S Senate by two votes

39. Lecompton Constitution (1857)
Second Constitution
Written by proslavery people; (Free-Staters refused to vote)
President James Buchanan submitted Lecompton Const. to U.S. Congress and recommended Kansas be admitted as a slave state
U.S. Congress voted against

40. Leavenworth Constitution (1858)
Third constitution
Written by Free-State forces opposed to slavery
All men (white, black, Indian) would have the right to vote but not women
Passed in Kansas Terr., but U.S. Congress voted against

41. Wyandotte Constitution (1859)
Fourth and final Constitution
Wyandotte Const. made Kansas a free state
Restricted voting rights and militia service to white men (but women gained property rights)
Kansas did not (could not) join Union until southern states began seceding prior to the Civil War.
The Wyandotte Const. passed Oct. 4, 1859, and Kansas became the 34th state on Jan. 29, 1861

42. From Territory to Statehood
To become the state of Kansas,
The people of the Kansas Territory had to write a constitution
The U.S. Congress had to accept the constitution.
Constitutional conventions took place in Topeka, Lecompton, Leavenworth and finally Wyandotte

43. Bleeding Kansas and Election Fraud
“About one thousand Missourians arrived in Lawrence to vote, and vote. Mrs. Robinson says: ‘they were armed with guns, pistols, rifles and bowie-knifes. They brought two cannon loaded with musket balls.”
~ From the Annals of Kansas, Daniel W. Wilder, 1875

44. Bleeding Kansas
“We will before six months rolls around have the Devil to play in Kansas…We are organizing to meet their organization. We will be compelled to shoot, burn an hang, but the thing will soon be over.”
~ Senator Atchison to U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, Sept. 24, 1854

45. ~ Abraham Lincoln ~ Thoughts on John Brown
“ Old John Brown has just been executed for treason against the state. We cannot object, even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right.” ~ Abraham Lincoln, speaking in Leavenworth , Kansas Territory, Dec. 3, 1859

46. Sen. Charles Sumner: The “Crime Against Kansas”
In 1856 Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts spoke about the “Crime against Kansas” - opening up the slavery issue in the Kansas Territory
He called Sen. Stephen Douglas of Illinois a “noise-some, squat, and nameless animal… not a proper model for an American senator.” Sumner also verbally attacked Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina for being proslavery.
Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina (the nephew of Butler) entered the Senate days later and hit Sumner with a cane so severely, he beat unconscious Sumner, who did not recover for nearly three years.

47. Caning of Sen. Sumner

48. Slavery and The Dred Scott Case
A slave named Dred Scott sued the US Government for his freedom
Supreme Court ruled in 1857 that Scott and others of African ancestry (free or slave) were not US citizens
Court ruled it unconstitutional for the US Gov. to prohibit slavery in the territories, incl. the Kansas Terr.
The decision alarmed mostly antislavery people
Dred Scott

49. Slavery and the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad – Network of safe houses that helped slaves escape
Success of Underground Railroad depended on secrecy
Ann Clark – slave from Lecompton, Kansas, who escaped on the Underground Railroad

50. Why Emigrate to Kansas? Isaac and Ellen Goodnow
Motivated to fight against slavery, the Goodnows and their company of 200 settlers came to Kansas Territory
Isaac founded the college that became Kansas State University
Built in what became Manhattan, their house is a State Historic Site

51. Why Emigrate to Kansas?
Most people came to Kansas for cheap land and economic opportunities (not for pro or anti-slavery causes)
Preemption Act - a person could claim up to 160 acres; obligated to pay $1.25 per acre after public land survey
Thousands came to Kansas seeking fortunes in gold
Others came to Kansas to push their proslavery and antislavery beliefs

52. Why Emigrate to Kansas?
Thousands came to Kansas Territory to seek fortune in gold
Western boundary extended to the Rocky Mountains
“Pike’s Peak or Bust”
Mr.Henke likes Mary best!

53. Why Emigrate to Kansas? New England Emigrant Aid Company
Antislavery group; received financial and moral support from New England abolitionists
Under guidance from the NEEAC, Charles Robinson led settlers from Massachusetts to Kansas Territory
Clarina Nichols came to Kansas Territory with the NEEAC

54. “Beecher Bibles”
Henry Ward Beecher – abolitionist preacher from Connecticut
Antislavery forces used rifles sometimes called “Beecher Bibles” because the rifles were shipped to Kansas in boxes labeled “bibles”