Bleeding Kansas

In US history, period in Kansas 1854–61 when it became the scene of bloody warfare between proslavery and antislavery settlers, anticipating the larger conflict of the American Civil War.

When the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thereby throwing the question of slavery to the settlers of new territories, thousands of settlers from both the North and the South poured into Kansas to try to affect the future of the state. Violence broke out, especially near the Missouri border. In 1856, slavery supporters burned down part of Lawrence, an anti-slavery town. During this time the abolitionist John Brown led a raid on Pottawatomie Creek, killing five supporters of slavery.