Objective: To examine the causes and effects of the Kansas – Nebraska Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

I. The Nebraska Territory was divided into two parts: Nebraska (NE) and Kansas (KS).

Kansas-Nebraska Act

II. The people of each territory voted on whether or not to allow slavery. (popular sovereignty)

Kansas-Nebraska Act

* The Kansas-Nebraska Act violated the Missouri Compromise. Both territories were north of 36,30’N and should NOT have been allowed to have slaves!

• Both sides claimed victory on the vote!

“Bleeding Kansas”

Before the vote on slavery:

• Northerners crossed the border to keep KS a free state.

• Southerners crossed the border to make KS a slave state.

Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder fled the territory disguised as a woodcutter because the proslavery Border Ruffians threatened to hang him.

Image courtesy of Legends of Kansas

George S. Park, the founder of Parkville, Missouri, and owner of the Parkville Luminary newspaper, dared to speak out against the actions of the "Border Ruffians."  As a result, they took revenge by  breaking into the newspaper office and throwing the printing press into the nearby Missouri River.

Pearl-handled sword of Col. Henry Theodore Titus, leader of pro-slavery forces during “Bleeding Kansas”. Kansas Museum of History.

John Brown was particularly affected by the sacking of Lawrence, in which a sheriff-led posse destroyed newspaper offices, a hotel, and killed two men, as well as by the brutal beating of anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks. (Sumner had given a speech to the U.S. Senate and in retaliation, Brooks caned him nearly to death.)

* In 1856, an abolitionist named John Brown murdered five proslavery men.* Over 200 people died in the fighting that followed.

John Brown lived in Osawatomie, Kansas Territory.  He was famous for being an abolitionist (a person opposed to slavery).  Brown and his sons were responsible for the brutal murder of several proslavery men near Pottawatomie, Kansas.  The men were called out of their homes at night and hacked to death with swords.  This was just one of many incidents that earned Kansas Territory the name of "Bleeding Kansas."

In May 1858, proslavery settlers executed a group of their free state neighbors along the Marais de Cygne river in southeastern Kansas Territory.  This event became known as the Marais de Cygne Massacre.