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 Tony O’ Bryan, University of Missouri – Kansas City

Although the name “Red Legs” is commonly conflated with the term “jayhawkers” to describe Kansas guerilla units that fought for the Free-State side during the Bleeding Kansas era or the Union side in the Civil War, Red Legs originally referred to a specific paramilitary outfit that organized in Kansas at the height of the Civil War.

By Matthew Reeves, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Andrew H. Reeder was an American lawyer and politician most known for his involvement in “Bleeding Kansas,” first as the federally appointed governor of Kansas Territory, then as a leading force in the Free-State movement.

By Deborah Keating, University of Missouri-Kansas City

As the entire nation went to war, slaves in Missouri, a border state where slavery was legal until 1865, remained in bondage. The story of Spotswood Rice illustrates the Civil War experience of one such slave and his personal battle to liberate himself and his family. Waged without certainty of success, within a legal framework that denied his freedom even as neighbor fought neighbor on the Missouri-Kansas border, Spotswood Rice and his family represent the courage of African American slaves who were willing to risk everything for freedom.

By Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati

Charles Robinson was raised by abolitionist parents, attended Amherst College, and then studied and practiced medicine. Later, Robinson was appointed a Kansas agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, became the extra-legal Free-State governor of Kansas Territory, and eventually the official governor of the state of Kansas in 1861.

By Deborah Keating, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Sara T.D. Robinson, and her husband, Charles, were two affiliates of the New England Emigrant Aid Company who accepted the challenge of settling in Kansas Territory to counter proslavery efforts and ensure that Kansas entered the Union as a free state. Sara brought her considerable talents as persuasive chronicler to the abolitionist fight and used her pen to document life in the new territory. Observant and articulate, she recorded her experience in Kansas: Its interior and Exterior Life, published in 1856.