Bleeding Kansas

Antebellum by Last Best Hope of EarthJanuary 14, 2017April 16, 2018

The Raid on Harpers Ferry

For the bulk of the early 19th Century, slaveholders in the South had a deep fear that a slave revolt would erupt and metastasize, leading to an eradication of the institution, similar to what happened in Haiti in the first years of the 19th Century. In 1859, John Brown, one of the instigators in Bleeding […]

Antebellum by Last Best Hope of EarthDecember 13, 2016December 13, 2016

The Lecompton Constitution

Following the violence in Kansas known as Bleeding Kansas, there was a question of whether the territory would be admitted as a free state or slave state. After taking office in 1857, President James Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker of Pennsylvania to be governor of Kansas. Governor Walker wrote a letter to President Buchanan, stating […]

Antebellum by Last Best Hope of EarthNovember 2, 2016October 31, 2016

Bleeding Kansas

After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, William Seward proclaimed to the Senate that “[w]e will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side which is stronger in numbers as it is in right.” Congressional Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., appendix, 769. Rather than settling the issue […]