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Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska

This political cartoon from 1856 blames the Democratic Party for violence in Kansas in the years after the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act. It depicts a bearded “free- soiler” (someone who opposed slavery in the Kansas Territory) being held down by Democratic Party politicians James Buchanan and Lewis Cass, while two other Democrats, Senator Stephen A. Douglas and President Franklin Pierce, force a black man (representing slavery) down his throat.

All too often, violent clashes broke out. The violence became so bad that

had banned slavery in the lands of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36° 30´ latitude line. Under the Kansas- Nebraska Act, the two territories would instead be allowed to decide their position on slavery by popular sovereignty . Kansas quickly became a battle- ground between pro-slavery and anti- slavery factions. Abolitionist settlers poured into the new territory, hoping to secure its future as a free state. Pro- slavery Missourians—known as “bor- der ruffians”—crossed into Kansas to harass the settlers and vote illegally.

the term “Bleeding Kansas” was coined to describe the new territory. The worst bloodshed came in 1856. The town of Lawrence, an anti-slavery stronghold, was raided by a mob of border ruffians. In

John Brown

retaliation, abolitionist John Brown led an attack on a pro-slavery camp near Pottawatomie Creek, killing five men. Ultimately, the abolitionists were