1 (2) | A (4) | B (20) | C (4) | D (2) | E (1) | F (9) | G (3) | H (2) | I (1) | J (4) | K (1) | L (10) | M (6) | N (2) | O (3) | P (9) | Q (3) | R (5) | S (10) | T (3) | U (2) | W (6)

By Deborah Keating, University of Missouri-Kansas City

As the violence between free-state and proslavery factions increased along the Missouri-Kansas border, one family placed itself in the vortex of the conflict. Florella Brown Adair and her husband, Samuel Lyle Adair moved to the Kansas Territory from Ohio as missionaries of the Congregationalist Christian Church. Passionate abolitionists in their own right, Florella’s half-brother, John Brown, would involve her family in the border violence in ways that the Adairs had not anticipated.

By Matthew E. Stanley, Albany State University

William T. Anderson was one of the most notorious Confederate guerrillas of the Civil War. Operating against Unionists in the midst of the guerrilla war in Missouri and Kansas, he was a leading figure in the infamous Lawrence Massacre and the Centralia Massacre, gaining the nickname “Bloody Bill” for the perceived savagery of his exploits.

By Claire Wolnisty, Angelo State University

Daniel R. Anthony was a man of strong abolitionist convictions who aggressively voiced his opinions as the postmaster, mayor, and dominant newspaper publisher in Leavenworth, Kansas. While Anthony’s contentious and radical nature isolated some of his contemporaries, he helped shape the territory of Kansas into a free state.

By Zach Garrison, University of Cincinnati

A proponent of westward expansion and a prominent proslavery Democrat in the state of Missouri, David Rice Atchison led the call for slavery’s extension into the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Following the passage of the divisive Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Atchison directed efforts of Missourians to cross the border in order to stuff ballots during Kansas’ first territorial election in 1855 and personally led Missouri “border ruffians” in their often-violent efforts to secure Kansas as a slave state, including an attack on Lawrence, Kansas in 1856.