Free-Staters Boycott Election

Monday, October 6, 1856

An artist's rendering of Free-State activist Charles Robinson speaking to the Lecompton Territorial Legislature. Courtesy of the Internet Archive.

Free-Staters boycott the territorial elections that result in the second territorial legislature at Lecompton, Kansas. The Free-Staters complain that the options given on the referendum ask voters to choose between making Kansas a slave state or merely banning the new importation of slaves. The latter option would sanction slavery for slaves who are already in Kansas, and its restrictions on new importations of slaves are likely unenforceable.