Editing Bleeding Kansas (section)

===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>