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Published Mar/Apr 2006 |
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Museums and battle sites in Eastern Kansas offer insight
into the state’s tumultuous beginnings 150 years ago. By Patricia Treacy |
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 ansas suffered growing pains as it struggled to statehood in the 1850s. Several skirmishes between pro- and antislavery factions took place that divided the state and ended in bloodshed. Two battles in the spring and summer of 1856 involving John Brown were especially violent and caught the nation’s attention.Venturing into the communities throughout eastern Kansas today takes you back to the state’s tumultuous beginnings when politics and violence were intertwined. This portion of American history is brought to life in several towns. The battles before the war It’s May 1854, seven years before the Civil War’s first shot is fired at Fort Sumter. Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, officially establishing Kansas Territory. The next step is statehood, but the question is should Kansas be a slave or free state. In Washington, D.C., Congress declared settlers of new states could decide whether or not to allow slavery. Kansas Territory became a hotbed of controversy. An election in March 1855 was the first for a territorial legislature. However, it was riddled with fraud and resulted in a legislature dominated by pro-slave partisans. “Free-staters” organized in protest, defied the officially recognized territorial authority and established their own government. The controversy exploded into violence. News of the violence spread across the country and the territory was dubbed “Bleeding Kansas.” Lecompton Lecompton’s Constitution Hall was the site of the writing of the controversial Lecompton Constitution in 1857, admitting Kansas into the Union as a pro-slavery state. Meanwhile, in the land office on the ground floor of the building, thousands of settlers against slavery filed their claims to the land. The Lecompton Constitution further divided Kansas, as well as the U.S. Congress, and sparked a chain of events that split the nation and eventually climaxed with the Civil War. In 1856, construction began on a Capitol in Lecompton, which is located in eastern Kansas approximately midway between Kansas City and Topeka. But the building was never completed for that purpose when it became evident that the free-state faction was about to win control in the territory. The state deeded the building in 1865 to Lane University, where former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s parents met and married in 1885. Lane University closed in 1902 and the building is now the Territorial Capitol/Lane Museum (640 E. Woodson), and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum and Constitution Hall State Historic Site (319 Elmore St.) are open to the public. A lecture series about Bleeding Kansas is held at the hall, which is a National Historic Landmark. Diane Eickhoff, author of “Revolutionary Heart: Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights,” will be featured on March 5 in the final lecture of the series. Topeka and Fort Riley The free-state government held its constitutional convention in Topeka in 1855. In 1861, Topeka was designated the capital city of the new state of Kansas. The Kansas Museum of History (6425 S.W. Sixth) holds letters written by John Brown, Carry Nation and other notable Kansans among its collection of historic documents. Also in 1855, the first territorial legislature convened at the town of Pawnee, adjacent to the Fort Riley military reservation. Here, pro-slavery forces tried to direct the fate of the Kansas Territory. The legislators had been elected with the aid of Missourians who had crossed the border to vote, and because of this illegal selection of representatives, the legislature became known as the “bogus legislature.” The Capitol was rebuilt from its ruins in 1928 by the Union Pacific Railroad and is now First Territorial Capitol State Historic Site. Lawrence Lawrence was founded in 1854 by New England abolitionists and was a stop on the Underground Railroad, as well as a haven for freed and escaped slaves. It has been said that Lawrence is the only city in the nation founded for political reasons. In 1863, Lawrence residents were surprised in a dawn raid by rebel guerilla leader William Quantrill and 400 of his vengeful men. In a four-hour rampage, nearly 200 men and boys were killed, and the town was sacked and burned. It was the worst civilian massacre of the Civil War. A 27-minute video shown in the visitor information center replays the city’s turbulent early years. Pick up a map for the self-guided tour that recounts Quantrill’s Raid. The center is located in the restored Union Pacific Depot at 402 N. Second St. John Brown John Brown, more than any other single person, polarized the nation over slavery and set the United States on a course toward civil war, according to most historians. Even today, Brown is a controversial figure. To some students of the years prior to the Civil War, he was a hero of conscience. To others, he was a madman and a cold-blooded killer. In 1855, pro-slavery forces from neighboring Missouri invaded Kansas. John Brown Jr. sent an urgent letter to his father asking for arms to fight back. The elder Brown told his wife, “I’m going to Kansas to make it a free state.” Brown and his men invaded some cabins along Pottawatomie Creek, brutally killing five men. Word of the May 1856 Pottawatomie Massacre spread across the country and all-out war began in Kansas. Slaveholding states called for Brown to be hanged. The Battle of Osawatomie In August 1856, Missourians drove Brown and his forces across the Marais des Cygnes River in eastern Kansas in the Battle of Osawatomie. Two years later, the nation was shocked when pro-slavery men gunned down 11 opponents in a ravine that is now the Marais des Cygnes Massacre State Historic Site, six miles north of Pleasanton off U.S. Highway 69. The natural area has interpretive signs and the 1860s Hadsell House for tourists to experience. In 1859, Brown and his men captured a U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry, Va. Their plan to arm a general slave uprising failed when troops under the command of Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee stormed Brown’s headquarters, wounding and capturing the leader. The state of Virginia quickly convicted Brown of murder, treason and inciting a slave insurrection. In December 1859, Brown was hanged in an open field in Charlestown, Va. John Brown Museum The John Brown State Historic Site is in a memorial park at 10th and Main streets in Osawatomie, about 50 miles south of Kansas City. During his years here, Brown stayed in a log cabin–the Adair house, home of his half-sister and her husband. The cabin and an exhibit gallery are open to visitors. When we think of the Civil War, we often picture the burning of pillared mansions in Atlanta. But the prelude to the Civil War violently played out in Bleeding Kansas. Patricia Treacy is a contributor from St. Louis, Mo. |
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| Living History
When Kansas was the edge of the American frontier and was taking its first steps into statehood, it weathered political controversy, Civil War strife and bloody battles. |
 At many upcoming events in Kansas, re-enactors will bring history to life. Charlie Riedel, Kansas Travel and Tourism photo |
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