American Nation Paper

Central Baptist College

"Bleeding Kansas”

By

Rashad Pippen

HIS2300-88

June 16, 2015

Throughout American history, many events have occurred and unfolded right before the eyes of us and our ancestors. Many events such as The Great Awakening, The Nullification Crisis, and The Emancipation Proclamation and their success and failures have worked to shape our great nation into what it is today. One intriguing moment in history was the Kansas-Nebraska Act otherwise known as “Bleeding Kansas”. Bleeding Kansas was considered a small civil was in United States, from 1854 to 1859, in which both antislavery and proslavery activists fought over control of new territory within Kansas under the principle of popular sovereignty. ^[1] Popular sovereignty enabled individuals who lived within certain regions to determine the nature of their government. In other words, these regions had the opportunity to decide whether or not they wanted to adhere to terms under the Union. The events that led up to ‘Bleeding Kansas” was caused by Senator of Illinois Stephen Douglas. Douglas had high hopes of persuading continent-wide railroad developers to move away from lands that were acquired by them in the Gadsden Purchase. His main goal was to propose that they build further north in order to give Chicago, his home region, a boost in economy. Douglas attempted to use the idea of popular sovereignty to his advantage assuming it would work as it did in the Compromise of 1850 but his plans fell through. It was not that Stephan Douglas complete agreed with or liked the idea of slavery. In fact, he secretly assumed that slavery would not take hold in territories such as Kansas and Nebraska due to the areas being unfitting for the production of cotton. Douglas’ act of selfishness led to violence and tension, issues with governance, and a grave amount of aftermath and effects which ultimately led to the war between the North and South and gave the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the events that followed the unusual nickname of “Bleeding Kansas”.

Violence and Tension

Senator Douglas, in 1854, made a decision to bring a bill before Congress. This bill consisted of organizing of the territories Kansas and Nebraska. Douglas proposed that the two territories would be divided and they would make decisions based on popular sovereignty instead of the principles set forth by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In spite of the efforts of the North, May 26, 1854 the bill was passed and signed by President Pierce. This was the beginning of a violent period in the history of our nation. Democrats and Whigs jumped at the chance to bring slavery into Northern territories. Soon after the bill was passed and signed into existence by President Franklin Pierce, antislavery and proslavery advocates began to become quite violent with one another. Riots and protests quickly flourished and the antislavery advocates took on the name Jayhawkers and the proslavery advocates took on the name Border Ruffians. Although there were a small number of deaths between 1854 and 1869, the newspapers in the East over exaggerated on the level of violence that took place during this time. If anything, there was more tension than violence. Majority of the conflict that presented itself came from the claims of land or attacks on people. “For example, in May of 1855 Cole McCrea killed pro-slavery Malcolm Clark over an argument over a claim in Salt Creek. In another instance, Reverend Pardee Butler was escorted out of Atchison by a committee of citizens for refusing to sign a memorial for a Border Ruffian.”^[2]

Governance

Due to the violence and tension following the initiation of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, things started to get a bit out of hand. Individuals advocating antislavery and proslavery made leading the Kansas Territory problematic. One of the first elections for legislation was overpowered by illegal Missouri voters which caused the election of proslavery legislatures. This, in turn, caused even more conflict and led to two separate governments being under operation within Kansas; one government operation was anti-slavery and the other proslavery. The Jayhawkers and the Border Ruffians began to form their own groups. The Jayhawkers designed their own government in Topeka, Kansas and from then were appointed representative of the citizens of Kansas. With the participation of 1,500 Border Ruffians, the Wakarusa War took place and shortly after the Border Ruffians invaded the Lawrence, a freestate town. Outraged, John Brown and a small band of proslavery advocates and brought death upon 200 people and created destruction to property totaling over $2 million. Despite this, proslavery advocates decided to go ahead and draft a constitution. Kansas citizens voted in January of 1858 and due a boycott set into place by those who supported free-state, the constitution passed. But a month later, the government of the United States decided to interfere and called for a reelection in August of 1858.^[3]