Bleeding Kansas: How Kansas Became a State

Next Scheduled Class - n/a

In May 1856, five pro-slavery settlers along Pottawatomie Creek in the Kansas Territory were brutally murdered. Many believed it was the work of John Brown and his followers. When asked about it, John Brown had the following reply:

I do not pretend to say they were not killed by my order; and in doing so I believe I was doing God's service. … I think he has used me as an instrument to kill men; and if I live, I think he will use me as an instrument to kill a good many more.

In the 1850s a mighty struggle took place in the newly formed Kansas Territory. The struggle was between men (and women) who wanted Kansas to enter the United States as a free state and those who wanted Kansas to enter as a state in which slavery was legal. Many folks in these parts believe that the American Civil War actually began in 1854 in the Kansas Territory. Find out why.

Like his Civil War classes, Dick tells the story of Bleeding Kansas using the diaries, letters, speeches, and memoirs of the people who were there.

Instructor: Dick Titterington is an amateur historian who has focused much of his energies on the events that took place in Missouri and Kansas before, during and after the American Civil War.

Course Objectives

•    Learn why Kansas Territory became the key battleground between pro-slavery and abolitionist interests

•    Learn who the key decision makers were during the events leading to Kansas statehood.

•    Learn about the key events that led this period to become known as “Bleeding Kansas.”

Partial List Of Topics

•    Constitutional compromises for slaveholders

•    The Missouri Compromise of 1820

•    The Compromise of 1850

•    The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

•    Kansas Territory settlers

•    Territorial elections in 1855

•    The Wakarusa War

•    Free State Election in 1856

•    The Sack of Lawrence

•    The Pottawatomie Massacre

•    The Battle of Black Jack

•    Lane's Army of the North

•    The Battle of Osawatomie

•    The Lecompton Constitution

•    The Leavenworth Constitution

•    Troubles in Southeastern Kansas

•    The Marais Des Cygnes Massacre

•    The Battle of the Spurs

•    The Wyandotte Constitution

•    Kansas Admitted As 34th State

•    How Bloody Was Bleeding Kansas?