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Title
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The Governor's Mansion, Lecompton, Kansas Territory
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Description
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Harper's Weekly wood engraving of men on horseback outside of the governor's mansion in Lecompton, Kansas Territory. The house was built by Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones and briefly resided in by Kansas Territorial Governor John W. Geary. In 1855, The "Bogus Legislature" selected the proslavery town of Lecompton as Kansas Territory's capital city. Meanwhile, Free-Staters continued to denounce the legislature as illegitimate.
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Object Type
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Image
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Date
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June 6, 1857
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Title
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From Frederick Starr to Dear Father
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Description
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This letter was written on March 31, 1855, by Frederick Starr in Weston, Missouri, to his father. Starr describes the election fraud that took place at the Kansas legislative elections on March 30, calling it “a high handed outrage.” He says that hundreds of armed, pro-slavery Missourians came into Kansas to disrupt the election, and that more than 800 illegal votes were cast in Leavenworth, Kansas. Starr asks his father to publish the information in his letter in the Albany Evening Journal, without mentioning his name.
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Date
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March 31, 1855
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Title
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From Charles Sumner to My Dear Hale
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Description
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Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner writes a letter from Washington to "My dear Hale" on March 1, 1856. Sumner criticizes Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, and the Know Nothing Party, and worries that "this Congress will do nothing for the benefit of Kansas." He expresses concern that Kansas will not be admitted to the Union due to its small population and the lack of support for its constitution.
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Date
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March 1, 1856
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Title
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Resolutions of the Kansas Territorial Legislative Assembly
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Description
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These documents comprise 14 separate resolutions of the Kansas Territorial Legislative Assembly, dated between 1858 and 1861. The resolutions address a variety of topics, including support for admitting Kansas into the Union as a state; revision of county and township laws; protection of American Indian land rights; and maintaining peace with Missouri by denouncing any attempt by Kansans to interfere with slavery.
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Object Type
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Government Document
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Date
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1858-1861
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Title
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Free State Convention!
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Description
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Invitation to the Free State Convention in Big Springs, Kansas. On September 5-6, 1855, approximately 100 delegates gathered at Big Springs, Kansas, along the California Road in Douglas County, to form the Free-State Party. The party supported the entry of Kansas into the Union as a free state, but it did not necessarily espouse abolition of slavery in the South, a position commonly considered to be radical in both the North and the South.
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Object Type
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Image
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Date
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1855
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Title
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From Frederick Starr to Unknown
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Description
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This is an excerpt from a letter written on December 1, 1854 by Frederick Starr to an unknown recipient. Starr describes a recent “outrage on the ballot box” during elections in Kansas, when “Some 1200 or 1400 Missourians armed with bowie-knives & revolvers took the polls.” Starr says that many free-soilers were unable to reach the polls at all, and declares that “Big times are coming.” He adds that circumstances in Weston, Missouri “look dark.”
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Date
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December 1, 1854
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Title
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From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
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Description
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In this January 20, 1856 letter to his parents in Massachusetts, Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas writes that Missourians launched an attack near Leavenworth on Election Day and tried to confiscate the ballot boxes. Fitch predicts an imminent war, and laments: “How long O Lord must we suffer thus. I hope you will raise an army in the East and March through Missouri and Proclaim liberty to the slave.” Included is a copy of a September 15, 1855 broadside published by John Speer that challenges the Bogus Legislature.
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Date
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January 20, 1856
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Title
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An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas
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Description
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This is a copy of “An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas,” otherwise known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The act, proposed by Senator Stephen Douglas, allowed Kansas to determine through popular sovereignty whether or not to legalize slavery. Despite much dissent in the House and Senate, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed and was signed into law by President Franklin Pierce on May 30, 1854.
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Object Type
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Government Document
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Date
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May 30, 1854
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Title
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From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
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Description
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Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas writes a letter to his parents on March 25, 1855, discussing controversy over the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society. Some consider it “a curse to the territory,” Fitch says, but he disagrees and claims it merely “has not done as much good as I wish it had.” He informs his parents, who live in Massachusetts, that he has turned his school into a boardinghouse to accommodate an influx of emigrants. He also mentions the upcoming state legislative election in Kansas and expresses concern that the pro-slavery ticket will win.
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Object Type
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Letter
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Date
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March 25, 1855
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Title
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John Brown's Sharps Rifle
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Description
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Photograph of John Brown's personal Sharps rifle, which he carried during his Kansas campaign of 1856.
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Object Type
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Image
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Date
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n.d.
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Title
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Rescue of Jacob Branson, 1855
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Description
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Woodcut depicting the rescue of Free-Stater Jacob Branson following his arrest for threats made to Franklin Coleman. A skirmish broke out in the Wakarusa River Valley near Lawrence, Kansas, following the murder of Charles Dow, a Free-State settler who was killed by the proslavery Franklin Coleman. While the murder was not about politics, the resulting political unrest led Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones to raise a militia and place Lawrence under siege. The "war" claimed one more victim, a Free-Stater named Thomas Barber.
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Object Type
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Image
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Date
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1855
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Title
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From John Stillman Brown to William Brown
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Description
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On February 14, 1858, John Stillman Brown writes a letter from Lawrence, Kansas to his son William. Brown criticizes the Lecompton Constitution and declares that "Our politics, like the weather, are some what squally." He predicts an influx of immigrants to Kansas, and states his belief that "Kansas is sure to be Free. In two years there will not be a slave in Kansas."
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Date
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February 14, 1858
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Title
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From Frederick Starr to My Dear Father
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Description
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On February 22, 1855, Frederick Starr writes from Weston, Missouri to his father. Starr recounts a recent speech he gave regarding slavery: “I consider slavery a moral and political evil…and the only wedge of contention which threatens to disturb & divide the Union. I am a Colonizationist.” He derides anyone falsely accusing him of being an abolitionist, stating that their lies “steal not only my property, but my comfort, my friendships, my domestic quietude, my influence, respect, and good name.” Starr adds that after he gave his speech, Gen. Stringfellow incited the crowd by encouraging an armed invasion into Kansas.
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Date
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February 22, 1855
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Title
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The Arrest of Governor Robinson by Marshall Donaldson
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Description
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Illustration of the arrest of Governor Charles Robinson by Marshall Donaldson in Lexington, Missouri on May 10, 1856. Charles Robinson, then considered the Kansas Territorial Governor by the Free-Staters' illegitimate Topeka legislature, was arrested for treason in Lexington, Missouri due to his faux "governorship" and his denouncements of the proslavery "Bogus Legislature." He was imprisoned at Lecompton, Kansas before being released on September 10, 1856. He was finally acquitted of the charges of treason on August 20, 1857. This image was originally published in the 1856 publication of "True History of the Kansas Wars" by O. N. Merrill.
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Object Type
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Image
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Date
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1856
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Title
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The Kansas Herald of Freedom
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Description
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An 1859 issue of the Herald of Freedom. The Herald of Freedom, a prominent Free-State newspaper, was first published in Lawrence, Kansas on October 21, 1854. The press was destroyed in the May 1856 Sacking of Lawrence, but it returned to print in November 1856.
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Object Type
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Newspaper Article
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Date
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March 26, 1859
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Title
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Squatter Sovereign
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Description
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The first issue of the Squatter Sovereign. The Squatter Sovereign, the most prominent of the proslavery newspapers in Kansas Territory, was first published in Atchison, Kansas in 1855. It printed some of the most inflammatory proslavery rhetoric in the territory, before ironically being purchased by the antislavery Samuel C. Pomeroy in March 1857. Pomeroy, an affiliate of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society, turned the paper in favor of the Free-State cause before reselling it to John A. Martin, who renamed it Freedom's Champion.
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Object Type
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Newspaper Article
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Date
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February 3, 1855
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Title
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From James Griffing to Augusta
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Description
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This April 6, 1855 letter was written by James Griffing in Wakarusa, Kansas, to Augusta. James has been helping some new “pioneer friends” stake a claim and become settled in Kansas Territory, remarking, “You can hardly think how fast the emigration is pouring in from the free states.” James describes a recent episode of election fraud: “armed forces from Missouri came and took possession of the ballot boxes and pretty much carried on the election as they pleased. Their proceedings will only work against them.”
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Date
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April 6, 1855
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Title
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From James Griffing to Unknown
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Description
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This letter, dated January 10, 1854 but presumably written January 10, 1855, was sent by James Griffing in Wyandotte County, Kansas to an unknown recipient. James discusses pioneer life in Kansas Territory, claiming that it is not at all dangerous: “Our society is mostly all from the East, and you feel just as much composed as when in New England.” Although James believes Missourians are more dangerous than the American Indians, he insists “there is no more reason for a person who attends to his own business to be afraid here” than anywhere else.
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Date
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January 10, 1855
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Title
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Amos Adams Lawrence
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Description
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Portrait of Amos A. Lawrence, namesake of Lawrence, Kansas.
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Object Type
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Image
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