Kansas Pre Civil War

On a hot August day in 1854 across a stretch of prairie in Kansas on the banks of the Kaw, two pioneers faced off.  On one side, Missourians, who had come west to claim newly opened land for the cause of slavery.  On the other side, northerners, financed by the New England Emigrant Aid Company, had traveled all the way west to claim land for free soil, free labor and free men.  Both were prepared to shed blood for their convictions. Although the day ended anti-climatically, the two groups exchanged threats but not gunfire.  Over the next six years, Kansas would know little peace with pro-slavery and free state fighting it out for control.

Before 1854 most of Kansas had been unorganized territory.  Then Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and divided the region into two territories.  Kansas in the south and Nebraska in the north.  The compromise was over the extension of slavery.  The act specifically repealed the old Missouri Compromise which had opened Missouri to slavery.

Under the new act, residents of the two created territories were to decide for themselves whether to admit or forbid slavery.  In the south, the Kansas--Nebraska Act was met with great satisfaction - more open territory for slavery.  In the north, the reaction was widespread anger and renewed determination that slavery would not extend across the prairie. 

The Act sparked the formation of the Republication Party made up mainly of the Free-Soil and Free Conscience people.  They were determined to reverse the new act and bar slavery forever from the area.  At the same time, clergyman, teachers, lecturers, and writers from anti-slavery New England raised money to finance emigrants to support their cause.

Next time..The first battle between the North and South
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 5, 1813, During the War of 1812, a combined British and Indian force is defeated by General William Harrison’s American army at the Battle of the Thames near Ontario, Canada. The leader of the Indian forces was Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief who organized inter-tribal resistance to the encroachment of white settlers on Indian lands. He was killed in the fighting.