BLEEDING KANSAS

"Bleeding Kansas" describes a conflict over slavery in the state of Kansas during the 1850s, immediately preceding the American Civil War (1861–65). The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created two new territories (Kansas and Nebraska). The U.S. Congress ruled that the question of slavery in each should be decided by popular sovereignty. Nebraska's population primarily consisted of people opposed to slavery, but settlers from both the North and the South settled Kansas. The territory became the scene of a showdown between the Free State advocates (who formed the Free State party to oppose slavery) and the pro-slavery contingent.

In 1855 territorial elections were held, and the vote was swung to the pro-slavery side. This was partly due to Missourians who crossed the border and cast votes in the neighboring territory. Slavery supporters soon dominated the Kansas legislature and passed laws favorable to their own interests. Tensions were heightened and violence broke out between the two sides. Most of the conflicts clustered around the border with Missouri, a state where slavery was legal. In one incident on May 24, 1856 ardent abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859) led an attack in which five pro-slavery men were brutally murdered in their sleep. The act was carried out in retribution for earlier killings of freemen at Lawrence, Kansas. Brown claimed his was a mission from God. Newspapers dubbed the series of violent conflicts "Bleeding Kansas," after they claimed more than 50 lives. The situation proved that the doctrine of popular sovereignty would not solve the nation's deep ideological differences.

In Kansas the Free State party eventually regained control of the territorial government and wrote a constitution abolishing slavery. Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861. By that time the states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana had already seceded from the Union.