History Of The Bleeding Kansas

After the bill was passed, pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters rushed in to settle in Kansas to affect the outcome of the first election. Pro-slavery settlers won the election, but were charged with fraud by anti-slavery settlers. The anti-slavery settlers held another election, but the pro-slavery settlers refused to vote. This resulted in two opposing legislatures within the Kansas territory. The opposition created violence between the two groups, causing many bloody battles that greatly increased the death rate, giving Kansas the nickname “Bleeding Kansas”. President Pierce, supporting pro-slavery, sent in Federal troops to stop the violence and disperse the anti-slavery legislature. Another election was held and pro-slavery supporters won. They were again charged with election fraud. As a result, Congress did not recognize the constitution the pro-slavery settlers adopted, and Kansas wasn’t allowed to become a state. Eventually,

The Kansas and Nebraska Act was also a major cause of political conflicts. It pressured popular sovereignty over those new territories. Kansas, according to the Northerners, was being pressured into becoming a slave state by having acts of violence be done against them. As well, people from Missouri were going into Kansas and using their power to vote for it as a slave state, and the North

Nebraska was so far north that its future as a free state was never in question. But Kansas was next to the slave state of Missouri. In an era that would come to be known as "Bleeding Kansas," the territory would become a battleground over the slavery question.

Channing felt that acquiring Texas would not only spark conflict with Mexico but would also create problems in the United States in regards to slavery. This issue over the extension of slavery in Texas presaged Bleeding Kansas, a series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery Free Soilers and pro-slavery Southerners that took place in the Kansas Territory between 1854

The North pushed for the abolition of slavery due to the immorality of it. Yet, some reports say otherwise. In the article To Forget and Forgive: Reconstructing the Nation in The Post-Civil War Classrooms, Ginsburg states, “Confederate authors explained Northern anti-slavery sentiment in economic terms once Northern businessmen found slavery unprofitable, they abolished it and turned to slavery 'Fanaticism”. These Southern authors believed that the North 's anti-slavery movement was a ploy for economic prosperity. As a result, this tension led to the fallout of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, when both northern slave territories were either free states or remained slave states by the people. This was an opportunity for the government to leave the legislative branch of slavery with poor sovereignty. The states decided on slavery in hopes that it would have ended slavery controversy and avoid racism.

Arguments that slavery was undesirable for the nation had long existed, and the northern states all abolished slavery after 1776. In the interest of maintaining unity, politicians had mostly moderate opposition to slavery, resulting in numerous compromises such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. However, The compromise that was reached (the Kansas-Nebraska Act) outraged too many northerners, which triggered violent uprisings from the North. These uprisings angered the Southern states greatly.

Three main events happened during Bleeding Kansas that influenced the Civil War. First, the Sack of Lawrence took place. The pro-slavery government in Kansas charged the anti-slavery government with treason. (Kansas had two governments. One was pro-slavery and the other anti-slavery.) Around eight-hundred men were sent to Lawrence to capture the anti-slavery leaders and found that they had fled. In anger, the group set the city on fire, ransacked buildings, and destroyed presses that printed anti-slavery newspapers. This infuriated the anti-slavery Americans

The Missouri Compromise caused some of the biggest conflicts in United States history. One of the biggest conflicts caused by the Missouri Compromise was the Civil War. The Missouri Compromise was passed forty-one years before the Civil War happened. It caused the disagreement between the north, the anti-slavery, and the south, the pro-slavery in the United States on the issue of slavery. The north did not like slavery and the south did. The Missouri Compromise was written by Henry Clay and both people who promote slavery and people who are against slavery agreed to it in Congress. The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 agreeing to Missouri to be a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also banned slavery in the Louisiana Territory north from the latitude line which was thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. The compromise stayed a law until it was canceled by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The

During the period of 1820-1861 the north and south debated on issues that dealt with slavery and unbalance power, in order to reduce sectional tension between these two states, the Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act were proposed.

A leading example of the struggles of slavery in the western states was the struggle over slavery in Kansas. Document F depicts a political cartoon basically stating that Stephen Douglas, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan all attempted intentionally or unintentionally to spread slavery to the West. Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in which the Midwest Nebraska territory would be divided into two states Kansas and Nebraska and the issue of slavery would be determined by in state vote known as "popular sovereignty". Franklin Pierce aided with the signing of the bill. The results upon this bill was harsh fighting between pro-slavery supporters and non-slavery supporters in Kansas over this issue. It also led to the non-reelection of Pierce and the end to the Whig party, along with the introduction of the sectional Republican party, who opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. An attempt at forcing slavery into

Finally, the issue of “Bloody Kansas” was a major political factor caused by westward expansion. Once it was resolved that Kansas’s stance on slavery would be determined by popular sovereignty, people flocked to Kansas to make their vote count. The “Border Ruffians” won the controversial vote, which resulted in Kansas being a slave state. However, the abolitionists refused to recognize the pro-slavery government, so they set up a second provincial government in Topeka, Kansas. This episode led to a skirmish between the Ruffians and the abolitionists, like in Lawrence, Kansas in May of 1856. This was a prelude to the actual civil war and showed that even if there was a “fair” vote to determine a Territories slave law, it didn’t mean that all the people would abide by the law. These political episodes involving the ever expanding west showed the weakness of the Union.

neither side was willing to compromise. Consequently, both pro-slavery and anti-slavery partisans flooded Kansas and

“Bleeding Kansas” had many senseless deaths and tragedies caused by the fight for slavery to either become a part of or become eradicated from the new state, Kansas. David Atchison was a major proslavery advocate who believed that slavery needed to be expanded because of its intrinsic value in the culture and economy of the South (Hollitz 210). Sara Robinson, on the other hand, believed that slavery was giving the South unfair political power while simultaneously giving them an economic power that was outdated and inhibiting to the future of the United States (213). Without ever meeting, these two influential figures went head to head in the issue of slavery and greatly influenced both of their parties. Robinson would eventually come out with the victory along with her “free soilers” group and would blaze a trail for many more to challenge the institution of slavery. Atchison would come to lose his battle and a portion of his great reputation and become known as the hell-raiser for his known and unknown relations with the violence during “Bleeding Kansas.” The events in Kansas seemed to bring up many issues that would come to change the face of the United States forever.

The role John Brown played the Civil War began in Kansas with his leading a "guerilla attack" on five pro-slavery men, on May 24, 1856. The targeted men were dragged, one after the other, from their homes and brutally murdered (Schultz, Mays, Winfree, 2010). The encounters were organized with the intention to rid the Pottawatomie creek area of all pro-slavery men that lived there (historynet.com). The strategy was designed as a counter attack for the Lawrence incident against abolitionists three days previously. The term "Bleeding Kansas" refers to the outbreak of violence the area experienced and suffered through. The division of Kansas at this time, half abolitionist and half pro-slavery, had caused a terrible friction throughout the territory.

During the 1850s, slavery had become a topic of great discussion, especially when it came to the organization of new territories, and whether slavery should be allowed or prohibited in these new territories. Some argued that slavery was right, while others though it was not and should be ended, causing fear and anger between the free-states in the North and the Southern Slave states. This would lead to many problems for the nation. These problems not only created a division between the northern and southern states, it caused blood to be spilled and led to beginning of the American Civil War. Within these events, four significant ones created the spark needed to start the Civil War. These events were the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854, Bleeding Kansas, Harper’s Ferry Raid, and the Secession of the South from the Union, which created a division between northern and southern states and made the American Civil War inevitable.