Bleeding Kansas: The Cause Of The Civil War
Bleeding Kansas also took part in causing the Civil War. Bleeding Kansas was a war between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery activists. It took place between 1855 to 1861 (Ponce). Missouri was a slave state and Kansas had not yet decided to be pro-slavery or anti-slavery, and because the two sections did not agree with each other, that caused a war. “Yet the violence that broke out in the 1850s was an unintended consequence of the territory’s organization” (Ponce). President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854. Kansas could settle anywhere under the doctrine of popular sovereignty and allowed residents to determine their state institutions for themselves (Ponce). “While its geography should have meant a free Kansas, residents
now had the option to implant slavery” (Ponce). After a couple of months of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, the territory became huge for partisan strife that ranged from voter intimidation to electoral fraud to outright warfare, all in the effort to determine the future state’s eventual relationship to slavery (Ponce). “In December of 1859, during a tour of Kansas Territory, Abraham Lincoln spoke at Leavenworth and offered the following advice to his fellow Republicans: “Leave your Missouri neighbors alone. Have nothing whatever to do with their slaves. Have nothing whatever to do with the white people, save in a friendly way. Drop past differences, and so conduct yourselves that if you cannot be at peace with them, the fault shall be wholly theirs.”” (Ponce). Kansas entered the Union with its antislavery reputation firmly established by the Bleeding Kansas ideological struggle of the 1850s. For many of the state’s activists, war had long been expected and was welcomed (Ponce).
now had the option to implant slavery” (Ponce). After a couple of months of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, the territory became huge for partisan strife that ranged from voter intimidation to electoral fraud to outright warfare, all in the effort to determine the future state’s eventual relationship to slavery (Ponce). “In December of 1859, during a tour of Kansas Territory, Abraham Lincoln spoke at Leavenworth and offered the following advice to his fellow Republicans: “Leave your Missouri neighbors alone. Have nothing whatever to do with their slaves. Have nothing whatever to do with the white people, save in a friendly way. Drop past differences, and so conduct yourselves that if you cannot be at peace with them, the fault shall be wholly theirs.”” (Ponce). Kansas entered the Union with its antislavery reputation firmly established by the Bleeding Kansas ideological struggle of the 1850s. For many of the state’s activists, war had long been expected and was welcomed (Ponce).