The term Bleeding Kansas culminated from the violence that occurred from mid to late 1850’s. The violence began in 1854, after the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (History par 1). The act came to overturn the use of latitude as a boundary by the Missouri Compromise. The boundary separated the slave and free territory but people felt that the area should be a free state. However, other residents felt that it should remain as a slave state. As the arguments continued, more proslavery people as well as free-state settlers came to Kansas to join in the movement. In a short period, the violence began and abolitionist John Brown took it upon himself to lead anti-slavery fighters while in Kansas. He then took his men for a raid on Harpers Ferry, an action later recognized by people (PBS par 3).
Another factor that led to the conflict was the opening of the Kansas and Nebraska territories back in 1854 under the umbrella of popular sovereignty. By the end of 1855, there were rival governments formed by proslavery Missourians and antislavery groups (Kansas par 5). However, the republicans were against the formation as it brought fear among them and they were not true citizens. However, the governments were not shaken as they increased their interest in slavery issue. The Missourians and northerners brought in free-state settlers and armaments to their territories for safety. On the ground, the war kept heating up as more Missourians crossed the border in thousands to claim Lawrence, a free state that was their stronghold (Staff par 4). Ruffians cut short their joy on 21st of May 1856 when they looted the whole town. This event agitated the people and John Brown murdered five proslavery settlers several days later along Pottawatomie Creek. The orchestrated murder led to another four months of depredation and partisan violence (PBS par 6).
The conflict was at its climax with everyone seeking the blood of his or her enemies. There were small armies formed and armed in the eastern Kansas. Together they went on raids to Black Jack, Fort Saunders, Franklin, Slough Creek, Hickory Point, and Osawatomie (Staff par 6). On the other side, Brown and his forty armed men went to the cities raided by the Kansas armies in August. John W. Geary was chosen as the territorial governor on September in 1856 and tried his level best to cool down the border war through help by the federal troops. However, people in Kansas had a hard time cooperating with the cease-fire initiative (Kansas par 6). In 1858, they killed five free-state men under the Maria des Cygnes massacre. They pronounced disorder in other counties. Later in the year, Kansas rejected the Lecompton constitution which had a clause about proslavery. Though they said they will cooperate with John, there were other small violence in the state in 1861 (History par 7).
Another fact about the name ‘Bleeding Kansas’ is that it came from Horace Greeley who used it as his article title in the New York, Tribune (Kansas par 1). As per his explanation, the name describes the violence between antislavery and pro forces form Kansas in the late 1850’s. A great senator, Charles Sumner, from Massachusetts read out a two-day speech that talked of the crime people did against the Kansas territory (PBS par 8). He expressed the action as inhuman and it accelerated further down to the south. His speech brought about anger from the ruffians who later beat him and incapacitated him for more than three years. Later he was taken back to his state. The action came to be known as the Sumner-Brooks Affair (Kansas par 3).
Works Cited
History, United States. Bleeding Kansas. n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014. <http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h84.html>.
Kansas. n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014. http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/Kansas/
PBS. Bleeding Kansas. n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2952.html>
Staff, History.com. Bleeding Kansas. 2009. Web. 15 Dec. 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/bleeding-kansas>.
