Editing Bleeding Kansas (section)

{{Short description|Violent slavery-related confrontations in Kansas territory in latter half of 1850s}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Bleeding Kansas
| partof            = [[Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War|the prelude to the American Civil War]]
| image             = Reynolds's Political Map of the United States 1856.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = 1856 map showing slave states (gray), free states (pink), and territories (green) in the United States, with the Kansas Territory in center (white)
| date              = {{start date|1854}}–{{end date and age|1861}}
| place             = [[Kansas Territory]]
| result            = Antislavery settler victory
* Kansas admitted to the Union as a free state
* Fighting continues into the [[American Civil War]]
| combatant1        = [[Antislavery]] settlers<br />([[Jayhawker]]s/[[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-Staters]])
{{clist|bullets=yes|title=Supported by:
|{{flagicon|United States|1861}} [[United States]] (after 1860)<ref name="BK history">{{cite web|<!--author=History.com Editors-->title=Bleeding Kansas|url=https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/bleeding-kansas|website=[[History.com]]|date=April 7, 2021 }}</ref>
|}}
| combatant2        = [[Pro-slavery]] settlers ([[Border ruffian]]s)
{{clist|bullets=yes|title=Supported by:
|{{flagicon|United States|1861}} [[United States]] (1854-1860)<ref name="BK history"/>
|}}
| casualties1       = Disputed – 100+<ref name="Watts">{{Cite web |url=http://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1995summer_watts.pdf | last=Watts | first=Dale | title=How Bloody Was Bleeding Kansas? Political Killings in Kansas territory, 1854–1861 | work=Kansas History |date=1995 | pages=116–129 |access-date=January 9, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627045451/http://kshs.org/publicat/history/1995summer_watts.pdf |archive-date=June 27, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| casualties2       = 80 or fewer; 20–30 killed<ref name="Watts"/>
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Bleeding Kansas}}
| commander1        = [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]
| commander2        = No centralized leadership
}}
{{Events leading to US Civil War}}

'''Bleeding Kansas''', '''Bloody Kansas''', or the '''Border War''', was a series of violent civil confrontations in [[Kansas Territory]], and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of [[slavery in the United States|slavery]] in the proposed state of [[Kansas]].

The conflict was characterized by years of [[electoral fraud]], raids, assaults, and murders carried out in the [[Kansas Territory]] and neighboring [[Missouri]] by [[proslavery]] "[[border ruffians]]" and retaliatory raids carried out by [[Abolitionism in the United States|antislavery]] "[[Free-Stater (Kansas)|free-staters]]". According to ''Kansapedia'' of the [[Kansas Historical Society]], 56 political killings were documented during the period,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
|contribution=Bleeding Kansas
|title=Kansapedia
|date=2016
|publisher=[[Kansas Historical Society]]
|contribution-url=https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/bleeding-kansas/15145
|access-date=January 17, 2021
|archive-date=January 16, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116180705/https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/bleeding-kansas/15145
|url-status=live
}}</ref> and the total may be as high as 200.<ref>{{cite magazine
|title=A Look Back at John Brown
|date=Spring 2011
|volume=43
|number=1
|magazine=[[Prologue Magazine]]
|authorlink=Paul Finkelman
|first=Paul
|last=Finkelman
|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/spring/brown.html
|access-date=September 11, 2021
|archive-date=June 23, 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623023130/http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/spring/brown.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref> It has been called a [[Tragic Prelude]], or an overture, to the [[American Civil War]], which immediately followed it.

The conflict centered on the question of whether Kansas, upon gaining statehood, would join the Union as [[slave states and free states|a slave state or a free state]]. The question was of national importance because Kansas's two new senators would affect the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, which was bitterly divided over the issue of slavery. The [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]] of 1854 called for [[Popular sovereignty in the United States|popular sovereignty]]: the decision about slavery would be made by popular vote of the territory's settlers rather than by legislators in Washington, D.C. Existing sectional tensions surrounding slavery quickly found focus in Kansas.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 14, 2019 |title=Bleeding Kansas |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/bleeding-kansas |access-date=December 5, 2022 |website=American Battlefield Trust |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bleeding Kansas (article) |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/civil-war-era/sectional-tension-1850s/a/bleeding-kansas |access-date=December 5, 2022 |website=Khan Academy |language=en}}</ref>

Missouri, a slave state since 1821, was populated by many settlers with Southern sympathies and pro-slavery views, some of whom tried to influence the Kansas decision by entering Kansas and claiming to be residents. The conflict was fought politically, and between civilians, where it eventually degenerated into brutal gang violence and paramilitary [[guerrilla warfare]].

Kansas had a state-level civil war that would soon be replicated on a national basis. It had two different capitals (proslavery [[Lecompton]] and antislavery [[Lawrence, Kansas|Lawrence]], then Topeka), two different constitutions (the proslavery [[Lecompton Constitution]] and the antislavery [[Topeka Constitution]]), and two different legislatures (the so-called "bogus legislature" in Lecompton and the antislavery body in Lawrence). Both sides sought and received help from outside, with the proslavery side receiving aid from the federal government, as Presidents [[Presidency of Franklin Pierce|Franklin Pierce]] and [[Presidency of James Buchanan|James Buchanan]] openly supported the proslavery partisans.<ref name="BK history"/> Both claimed to reflect the will of the people of Kansas. The proslavers used violence and threats of violence, and the free-staters responded in kind. After much commotion, including a congressional investigation, it became clear that a majority of Kansans wanted Kansas to be a free state, but this required congressional approval, which Southerners in Congress blocked.

Kansas was [[Admission to the Union|admitted to the Union]] as a free state the same day that enough Southern senators had departed, during the [[Secession in the United States|secession crisis]] that led to the Civil War, to allow it to pass (effective January 29, 1861). Partisan violence continued along the Kansas–Missouri border for most of the war, although [[Kansas in the American Civil War|Union control of Kansas]] was never seriously threatened. Bleeding Kansas demonstrated that armed conflict over slavery was unavoidable. Its severity made national headlines, which suggested to the American people that the sectional disputes were unlikely to be resolved without bloodshed, and it, therefore, acted as a preface to the American Civil War.<ref name="Etcheson_1">{{cite web|last1=Etcheson|first1=Nicole|title=Bleeding Kansas: From the Kansas–Nebraska Act to Harpers Ferry|url=http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/essay/bleeding-kansas-kansas-nebraska-act-harpers-ferry|website=Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri–Kansas Conflict, 1854–1865|publisher=The Kansas City Public Library|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722125613/http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/essay/bleeding-kansas-kansas-nebraska-act-harpers-ferry|archive-date=July 22, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> The episode is commemorated with numerous memorials and historic sites.