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Bleeding Kansas
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==Open violence== On November 21, 1855, the so-called [[Wakarusa War]] began in [[Douglas County, Kansas|Douglas County]] when a proslavery settler, Franklin Coleman, shot and killed a Free-Stater, [[Charles W. Dow]], with whom Coleman had long been engaged in a feud that was unrelated to local or national politics. Dow was the first American settler to be murdered in the Kansas Territory. The decision by Douglas County Sheriff [[Samuel J. Jones]] to arrest another Free-Stater rather than Coleman and the prisoner's subsequent rescue by a Free-State posse erupted into a conflict that pitted, for the first time, armed pro-slavery settlers against antislavery settlers. Governor [[Wilson Shannon]] called for the Kansas militia, but the assembled army was composed almost entirely of proslavery Missourians, who camped outside the town of Lawrence with stolen weapons and a cannon. In response, Lawrence raised its own militia, led by [[Charles L. Robinson]], the man elected governor by the Topeka legislature, and [[James H. Lane (politician)|James H. Lane]]. The parties besieging Lawrence reluctantly dispersed only after Shannon negotiated a peace agreement between Robinson and Lane and [[David Rice Atchison]]. The conflict had one other fatality, when Free-Stater Thomas Barber was shot and killed near Lawrence on December 6. ===Summer of 1856=== {{main|Sacking of Lawrence|Caning of Charles Sumner|Pottawatomie massacre|Battle of Osawatomie}} On May 21, 1856, proslavery Democrats and Missourians invaded Lawrence, Kansas, and burned the Free State Hotel, destroyed two antislavery newspaper offices, and ransacked homes and stores in what became known as the [[Sacking of Lawrence]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/first-sack-lawrence |title=First Sack of Lawrence | Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865 |access-date=February 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190215155859/http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/first-sack-lawrence |archive-date=February 15, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> A cannon used during the Mexican–American War, called the Old Kickapoo or Kickapoo Cannon, was stolen and used on that day by a proslavery group including the Kickapoo Rangers of the [[Kansas Territorial Militia]].<ref name="kshs.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/old-kickapoo-cannon/10234|title=Old Kickapoo Cannon|website=Kansapedia – Kansas Historical Society|author=Kansas Historical Society|date=February 2017|access-date=June 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180515044129/https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/old-kickapoo-cannon/10234|archive-date=May 15, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> It was later recovered by an [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|anti-slavery faction]] and returned to the city of [[Leavenworth, Kansas|Leavenworth]].<ref name="kshs.org"/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WhWolLQAdbAC&pg=PA13|title=Civil War General and Indian Fighter James M. Williams: Leader of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and the 8th U.S. Cavalry|first=Robert W.|last=Lull|year=2013|publisher=University of North Texas Press|isbn=978-1574415025|via=Google Books|access-date=June 2, 2018|archive-date=January 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102163127/https://books.google.com/books?id=WhWolLQAdbAC&pg=PA13|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kspatriot.org/index.php/articles/18-kansas-military-history/638-kickapoo-cannon.html|title=Kickapoo Cannon|work=Blackmar's Cyclopedia of Kansas History|volume=II|page=69|year=1912|via=Kansas State History|access-date=June 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180515112335/http://www.kspatriot.org/index.php/articles/18-kansas-military-history/638-kickapoo-cannon.html|archive-date=May 15, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> [[File:Southern Chivalry.jpg|thumb|[[Preston Brooks]] attacking [[Charles Sumner]] in the U.S. Senate in 1856]] In May 1856, Republican Senator [[Charles Sumner]] of Massachusetts took to the floor to denounce the threat of slavery in Kansas and humiliate its supporters. Sumner accused Democrats in support of slavery of lying in bed with "the harlot of slavery" on the House floor during his "Crimes Against Kansas" speech.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm |title=The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner (May 22, 1856) |publisher= United States Senate |access-date=February 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207002155/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm |archive-date=February 7, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> He had devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what Republicans called the [[slave power]], that is the efforts of slave owners to control the federal government and ensure both the survival and the expansion of slavery. In the speech, Summer criticized South Carolina Senator [[Andrew Butler]], portraying Butler's pro-slavery agenda towards Kansas with the raping of a virgin, and characterizing his affection for it in sexual terms.<ref>{{cite journal| last =Pfau| first =Michael William| title =Time, Tropes, and Textuality: Reading Republicanism in Charles Sumner's 'Crime Against Kansas'| journal =Rhetoric & Public Affairs| volume =6| issue =3| pages =393| date =2003| url =http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rhetoric_and_public_affairs/v006/6.3pfau.html| doi =10.1353/rap.2003.0070| s2cid =144786197| archive-date =August 14, 2019| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20190814092935/http://muse.jhu.edu/article/48700| url-status =live| url-access =subscription}}</ref> Two days later, Butler's cousin, the South Carolina Congressman [[Preston Brooks]], attacked Sumner, [[Caning of Charles Sumner|nearly beating him to death]] on the Senate floor with a heavy cane. The action electrified the nation, brought violence to the floor of the Senate, and deepened the North–South split.<ref>Williamjames Hull Hoffer, ''The Caning of Charles Sumner: Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War'' (2010)</ref> After nearly killing Sumner, Brooks was praised by Southern Democrats for the attack. Many pro-slavery newspapers concluded that abolitionists in Kansas and beyond "must be lashed into submission," and hundreds of Southern Democrat lawmakers after the attack sent Brooks new canes as an endorsement of the attack, with one of the canes being inscribed with the phrase "hit him again." Towns and counties renamed themselves to honor Brooks ([[Brooksville, Florida]], [[Brooks County, Georgia]], and others). Two weeks after the attack, American philosopher and Harvard graduate [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] condemned Brooks and the pro-slavery lawmakers, stating: "I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute one state. I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom." In the coming weeks, many proslavery Democrats wore necklaces made from broken pieces of the cane as a symbol of solidarity with Preston Brooks.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/58077515/ |title=3 Jun 1856, Page 2 - the Charlotte Democrat at Newspapers.com |access-date=February 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209123820/http://www.newspapers.com/image/58077515/ |archive-date=February 9, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[File:Palmetto-Guards-Southern-Rights-flag-1856.png|thumb|Digital remake of the flag carried by the Palmetto Guards while they attacked Lawrence, it was later captured near [[Oskaloosa, Kansas|Oskaloosa]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Southern Rights flag - Kansas Memory |url=https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/209880 |access-date=2024-11-21 |website=www.kansasmemory.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-11 |title=Our Captured Flag, Slough Creek |url=https://jeffersonjayhawkers.com/2017/09/11/our-captured-flag-slough-creek-part-i/ |access-date=2024-11-21 |website=Jefferson County Jayhawkers and Forgotten Freestaters |language=en-US}}</ref>]] The violence continued to increase. John Brown led his sons and other followers to plan the murder of settlers who spoke in favor of slavery. At a proslavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek on the night of May 24, the group seized five proslavery men from their homes and [[Pottawatomie massacre|hacked them to death]] with [[broadsword]]s. Brown and his men escaped and began plotting a full-scale slave insurrection to take place at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, with financial support from Boston abolitionists.<ref>{{Cite book|title=John Brown: "We Came to Free the Slaves"|last=Schraff|first=Anne E.|year=2010|page=56|publisher=Enslow|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9vccT4QhlIC&pg=PA56|isbn=978-0-7660-3355-9|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511193705/https://books.google.com/books?id=g9vccT4QhlIC&lpg=PA56|archive-date=May 11, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The proslavery territorial government, serving under President Pierce, had been relocated to Lecompton. In April 1856, a congressional committee arrived there to investigate voting fraud. The committee found that non-Kansas residents had illegally voted in the election, resulting in the proslavery government. President Pierce refused recognition of its findings and continued to authorize the proslavery legislature, which the Free State people called the "Bogus Legislature". [[File:THUMBNAIL001L.jpg|thumb|''[[Tragic Prelude]]'', in the [[Kansas State Capitol]]]] On July 4, 1856, proclamations of President Pierce led to nearly 500 U.S. Army troops arriving in Topeka from [[Fort Leavenworth]] and [[Fort Riley]]. With their cannons pointed at Constitution Hall and the long fuses lit, Colonel [[Edwin Vose Sumner|E.V. Sumner]], cousin to [[Charles Sumner|the senator of the same name]] who was [[Caning of Charles Sumner|beaten]] on the Senate floor, ordered the dispersal of the Free State Legislature.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas K. Tate|title=General Edwin Vose Sumner, USA: A Civil War Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hf8CAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|year=2013|publisher=McFarland|page=53|isbn=978-0786472581|access-date=December 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503113527/https://books.google.com/books?id=hf8CAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|archive-date=May 3, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In August 1856, thousands of proslavery men formed into armies and marched into Kansas. That month, Brown and several of his followers engaged 400 proslavery soldiers in the [[Battle of Osawatomie]]. The hostilities raged for another two months until Brown departed the Kansas Territory, and a new territorial governor, [[John W. Geary]], took office and managed to prevail upon both sides for peace. ===1857–1861=== [[File:Bleeding-Kansas-flag.png|thumb|Digital remake of US flag flown during the conflict, K stands for Kansas<ref>{{Cite web |title=31 STARS PLUS A "K" FOR BLEEDING KANSAS, AN EXTRAORDINARILY UNUSUAL FORM OF POLITICAL SYMBOLISM ON AN EARLY STARS & STRIPES, PRE-CIVIL WAR, CALIFORNIA STATEHOOD, 1850-1858 |url=https://jeffbridgman.com/inventory/civil-war-31-stars-plus-k-bleeding-kansas-california-1850-o2299.html |access-date=2024-11-20 |website=jeffbridgman.com}}</ref>]] This was followed by a fragile peace broken by intermittent violent outbreaks for two more years. The last major outbreak of violence was touched off by the [[Marais des Cygnes massacre]] in 1858, in which Border Ruffians killed five Free State men. In the so-called [[Battle of the Spurs (Kansas)|Battle of the Spurs]], in January 1859, John Brown led escaped slaves through a proslavery ambush en route to freedom via Nebraska and Iowa; not a shot was fired. About 56 people, though, died in Bleeding Kansas by the time the violence ended in 1859.<ref name="Watts"/> There were still ongoing acts of violence even after Kansas adopted a free state constitution in 1859. In 1860, the [[Indian agent]] Col. Cowan and sixty United States dragoons burned down many free state supporting settlers' homes, while sparing settlers who came from the South or supported slavery.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1860/11/07/archives/kansas-a-new-page-in-the-history-of-the-territory-the-trouble-on.html A New Page in the History of the Territory The Trouble on the Cherokee Neutral Lands The Settlers Driven of by U.S. Dragoons Seventy-four Houses Burnt Discrimination in Favor of Pro-Slavery Men] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203214359/https://www.nytimes.com/1860/11/07/archives/kansas-a-new-page-in-the-history-of-the-territory-the-trouble-on.html |date=February 3, 2023 }}, nytimes.com/</ref>
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