Bleeding Kansas EOTO #1

 Bleeding Kansas was the deadly outcome of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. 

The act “instituted a policy known as popular sovereignty in the Kansas Territory, allowing the settlers to decide by vote whether the territory would be admitted to the Union as a slave or free state”. 

People on both sides flooded the territory in order to sway the outcome. This would lead to violent, and deadly clashes. 

“During Bleeding Kansas, murder, mayhem, destruction and psychological warfare became a code of conduct in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri”. 

A well-known example is the massacre in May 1856. This was at Pottawatomie Creek, “where John Brown and his five sons killed pro-slavery advocates”.

Fort Scott was used to trouble and violence. But in 1858 everything intensified. “The residents of Fort Scott were predominately pro-slavers, while Free-Staters and abolitionists dominated the surrounding countryside. Radicals of each faction terrorized the town throughout the Bleeding Kansas era”. 

In 1858 James Montgomery became a leader of the Free State forces. He was involved in multiple violent attacks. 

“In April of 1858, Montgomery and his men fought U.S. troops stationed at Fort Scott in the battle of Paint Creek. One soldier was killed in this encounter”.

“In May of 1858, Montgomery and his men drove pro-slavery forces from Linn County. In retaliation, 11 Free-Staters were pulled out of their homes, taken to a ravine and shot down. This incident, known as the Marais des Cygnes Massacre, was rumored to have been plotted in the Western Hotel”.

All this violence caught the governor's attention. “On June 15, 1858, he held a meeting at the Western Hotel in order to settle political unrest. While this meeting nearly devolved into a riot, it was successful. Peace and quiet reigned for a brief five-month period”.

Montgomery struck again in December of 1858. He ‘rescued’ Benjamin Rice, a Free-Stater. He had been jailed for murder, but Montgomery thought he was jailed illegally so he went and rescued him. 

Having all different sides in one area led to three distinct political groups, pro-slavery, Free-Staters, and abolitionists. 

“The anti-slavery forces prevailed as Kansas entered into the Union a free state on January 29, 1861. This turbulence illustrated the beginning of the terrifying bloodshed that was to come during the Civil War”.

Links:

Bleeding Kansas (U.S. National Park Service)