The Kansas Nebraska Act I. E. Bleeding Kansas

Of all the events that happened in the US before 1877, the one event that completely changed the course of history was the direct result of the Kansas Nebraska act i.e. Bleeding Kansas. The Kansas Nebraska act allowed for new territories to decide if they were a free or a slave sate by popular sovereignty. It undid the compromise that was made in Missouri compromise, which designated a line of latitude to be the separation of free and slave states. The Kansas Nebraska act re ignited the differences between pro and anti-slavery sections. Violent events and fighting had become so terrible that it had to be termed as “Bleeding Kansas”.
It all began in early months of 1854 with the proposal of the democratic senator of Illinois, Stephen Douglas.
His initial selling point was that the new Kansas Nebraska act would open up thousands of farms and it would be feasible to start a Midwestern rail. The idea of the act was appreciated and accepted with open arms though what caused the trouble was the inclusion of the clause about popular sovereignty. It gave the voters of the states the right to decide whether slavery should be allowed or not.
Douglas’ idea behind the proposal was that he wished that concept of popular sovereignty would lower the natural tensions over the issues that persisted such as human bondage and that he wouldn’t have to take a stand. However, a wave of indignation erupted across the North as anti-slavery elements cried betrayal, for Kansas had been officially closed to slavery since the Missouri Compromise of 1820, now repealed.

In May 1854 the act was signed.
And that began a series of events that would completely redefine the history of not only that state but also of the country. In the very next month pro-slavery supporters crossed the border and founded the towns of Leavenworth and Atchison. On November 29 1845 the First election was held in Kansas. Pro-slavery Missourians flooded the state to vote, where the armed pro-slavery advocates intimidated voters and stuffed ballot boxes. Andrew Reeder was elected to be the first provincial governor of Kansas. In October 1855 abolitionist John Brown came to Kansas to fight slavery and within a month the Wakarusa War began with the shooting of a free stater named Charles Dow. During the siege, the main body of the invaders were encamped on the Wakarusa bottoms, some six miles (10 km) from Lawrence. The invading army numbered nearly 1,500 men. They were indifferently armed as a whole, although they had broken into the United States Arsenal at Liberty, Missouri, and stolen guns, cutlasses, a cannon and such munitions of war as they required. The only fatality of the war was that of the free stater Thomas Barber who was shot and murdered in the vicinity of Lawrence on December 6. It was only the intervention of the new governor, Wilson Shannon, which kept the proslavery men from attacking Lawrence. In months to come, The pro-slavery capital was moved to the Shawnee Methodist Mission in what is now Fairway, Kansas and in retaliation of the illegal first
territorial legislature, the abolitionists set up a rival government at Topeka and a State constitution was framed in Topeka. However, it did not receive serious consideration in Congress. Meanwhile the then Senator Charles Sumner, from the repulcian party, played down the threat of slavery in Kansas and looked to humiliate its supporters. Having invested a large amount of resources in the destruction of the Slave Power, as termed by the republicans, i.e. the efforts of slave owners to take over and control federal government and work towards the expansion and survival of slavery. While addressing the senate Sumner played down the honor of South Carolina senator Andrew butler. The following day, he was almost killed by Butler’s cousin Preston brooks . These actions electrified not only the state but the whole nation and brought violence to the senate and increased the conflict between the north and the south. As the tension and violence continued to escalate, brown leaded his sons and followers into devising a plan to murder the settlers who were in favor of slavery.
At a settlement of soldiers in favor of slavery at Pottawatomie creek, the group seized and murdered 5 pro slavery men. On the Fourth of July in 1856, declarations of President Pierce resulted in nearly 500 U.S. Armed forces to arrive in Topeka from Ft. Leavenworth and Ft. Riley. As their cannons aimed at Constitution Hall, and the long fuses set alight, Colonel E.V. the senator’s cousin, who was beaten on the Senate floor, ordered the dispersion of the Free State Legislature A series of battles such as the battle of Osawatomie in August 1856 followed in which thousands of pro-slavery men organized themselves into armies and marched into Kansas. That very month, Brown and many of his followers attacked 400 pro-slavery soldiers. They continued to fight for 2 months during which 5 people were killed which included the son of Brown, Frederick Brown. In October 1856 Brown departed from the Kansas territory and was succeeded by John Geary whose first action was to find some common ground between the two parties and establish peace. He was able to do so in parts but couldn’t stop the intermittent violent outbreaks for the next 2 years. The last of the battles was the massacre at Marais des Cygnes in 1858, in which Border Ruffians killed 5 Free State
men. A total of 56 people died and hundreds injured by the time these series of violent attacks ended. In 1859, a final constitution was adopted. However, the fierce animosity that had fed violence in Kansas and Missouri continued and impacted how the Civil War was fought on the Missouri-Kansas border. Many of the guerillas who roamed southwest Missouri had been brought to violence by the conflict of Bleeding Kansas and the border wars with Missouri. In addition, the atmosphere in Kansas, and the media’s portrayal, spurred tensions nationally and was one of the events that helped to bring on the Civil War.
It is believed that During the Civil War, Kansas suffered the highest rate of fatal casualties of any Union state, largely because of its great internal divisions over the issue of slavery. Bleeding Kansas can be seen as both a foreshadowing and a microcosm of the Civil War. As historian Alice Nichols wrote, “Kansas had a twin and its twin was the Civil War.”