BLEEDING KANSAS
"Bleeding Kansas" was a term coined to describe the violent civil
disturbances in the United States (U.S.) territory of Kansas from
1854 to 1861. The violence was provoked by the Kansas-Nebraska
Act, a piece of legislation passed in the United States Congress
in 1854.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act declared that "popular sovereignty"
would decide whether Kansas would be a slave or free state when
admitted to the Union. And people on both sides of the issue
flooded into the Kansas territory in order to weigh any potential
vote in favor of their cause.
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Tragic Prelude by John Steuart Curry
By 1855 there were actually two competing governments in Kansas and things turned violent the following year when an armed force in favor of slavery burned the "free soil" town of Lawrence, Kansas.
The fanatical abolitionist John Brown and his followers retaliated, executing several pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas in May 1856.
The violence even spread into the United States Capitol. In May 1856, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate with a cane in response to a fiery speech about slavery and the unrest in Kansas.
Violent outbreaks continued until 1858, and it is estimated that approximately 200 people were killed in what was essentially a minor civil war (and what many believe to be a precursor to the American Civil War).
The term "Bleeding Kansas" was coined by the influential newspaper editor Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune.
CITATIONS
Kansas Historical Society (2016, July 1). Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved from http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-state-capitol-online-tour-tragic-prelude/16595.
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Slide Share (2016, July 1). Slide Share, 18. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/mrmurray/key-events-leading-to-the-civil-war.
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