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Title: Dred Scott v. Sandford
Description: This is the full text of the decision in the U.S. Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford. Scott, a slave, sued his master for freedom after being taken to live in states where the Missouri Compromise had rendered slavery illegal. On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney handed down a 7-2 ruling that Scott did not have the right to file a federal lawsuit because African Americans “were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.”
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: March 6, 1857

Title: John Brown's Sharps Rifle
Description: Photograph of John Brown's personal Sharps rifle, which he carried during his Kansas campaign of 1856.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: From John W. Geary to Israel Donalson
Description: Kansas Gov. John W. Geary writes a letter from Lecompton, Kansas to U.S. Marshal Israel Donalson on November 24, 1856. Geary inquires about a rumor that a large number of prisoners who were in Donalson’s custody have escaped. He asks Donalson how many prisoners escaped, what their names are, and what steps have been taken to find them.
Object Type: Letter
Date: November 24, 1856

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on February 20, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair in Grafton, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella says that the citizens of York “held a meeting and raised over $80.00 for Kansas.” Florella adds that there are many misconceptions about sending relief funds to Kansas: “I could have sent two or three hundred dollars to our town, if it had not been for the idea that all must go through the hands of the committee at Atchison.”
Date: February 20, 1861

Title: From Sara Robinson to Charles S. Gleed
Description: This letter is from Sara Robinson, abolitionist and wife of Kansas Gov. Charles Robinson, to Charles S. Gleed, a businessman in Topeka. Robinson writes from Lawrence, Kansas on January 7, 1881 and criticizes an "error" in an article Gleed wrote: "[you] connected John Brown's name with the safety of Lawrence. He really never had anything to do with its defense in any way." Attached to the letter is an unsigned document describing Brown's role in the "Invasion of the 2800" on September 14, 1856.
Date: January 7, 1881

Title: From George M. Beebe to Jefferson Davis
Description: George M. Beebe writes a letter from Doniphan County, Kansas to Jefferson Davis on June 9, 1860. Beebe reacts to the news that Davis and A.G. Brown have "indefinitely postponed" his confirmation as Secretary of Kansas Territory. He defends his status as a Democrat, insisting that accusations of his alliance with the Free State Party are false. He claims that he has fought in favor of slavery and remains committed to the cause.
Date: June 9, 1860

Title: Petition of Citizens of Wise County
Description: This petition, dated December 5, 1856, is addressed to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary and is signed by C. Columbia, Esq., on behalf of 20 families of recent settlers to Wise County, Kansas. Columbia claims that the families staked their claims based on a map that showed the nearest Indian reservation 25 miles away. John Montgomery, Indian Agent, recently informed the families that their land belonged to the Kansas Indian Agency and ordered them to leave within three days. Columbia asks Geary to stay Montgomery’s proceedings, “until the circumstances of the case may be inquired into, and determined in a just and lawful manner.”
Object Type: Petition
Date: December 5, 1856

Title: Rescue of Jacob Branson, 1855
Description: 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.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1855

Title: From Mary Savage to Dear Mother and Sister
Description: Mary Savage writes a letter to her mother and sister on October 10 and 12, 1863, describing Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence. She writes of the “fiendish pleasure” the attackers took in “witnessing the death agonies of our best citizens Murdered in cold blood.” She mentions helping soldiers and taking care of her minister’s family after their house was burned down in the raid. Mary says she fears an imminent guerrilla attack and tells her family, “we live in a state of constant excitement . . . our citizens are all armed . . . but their mode of warfare is so treacherous that we cannot have a fair fight.”
Date: October 10, 1863-October 12, 1863

Title: From O.C. Stewart to John W. Geary
Description: O.C. Stewart, mayor of Lecompton, Kansas, writes a letter to Gov. John W. Geary on October 11, 1856. Stewart asks Geary to send troops to Lecompton to seize an illegal supply of liquor that someone has been selling to soldiers.
Date: October 11, 1856

Title: From Frederick Starr to Dear Father & All the Others
Description: On November 29, 1854, Frederick Starr writes to "Dear Father & all the others.” Starr describes attending a meeting of the Platte County, Missouri Self Defensive Association “in order to clear my character.” Starr recounts that Mr. Vineyard accused him of interfering with local slave owners and teaching at a school for slaves. In his defense, Starr explains how this small school came to be established, naming each of his students and the masters who permitted them to attend. Starr notes that the school was discontinued after “there was some disturbance attempted through the papers.”
Date: November 29, 1854

Title: From J.M. Kingsbury to J.J. Webb
Description: This September 22, 1856 letter is from J.M. Kingsbury in Kansas City, Missouri to J.J. Webb in Santa Fe. Kingsbury writes that Kansas Territory is still plagued by "difficulties" and that Congress has passed the Army Bill. He expresses hope that the new governor of Kansas, John W. Geary, will "succeed in quieting things there and be able to carry out the law."
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 22, 1856

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Father
Description: This unsigned May 20, 1858 letter is presumably from Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas to his father in Massachusetts. Fitch criticizes the Lecompton Constitution and the English Bill due to their proslavery stance. He fears that those in the Kansas territory will accept the English Bill since it offers large amount of public lands to Kansas settlers. Though Fitch fears Kansas' entrance into the Union as a slave state, he ends his letter in an optimistic tone, remarking that it would be as impossible to make Kansas into a slave state “as it would be to make Hell out of Heaven.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: May 20, 1858

Title: Another Abolition Outrage
Description: The St. Louis Daily Bulletin printed this article on December 11, 1860, announcing that a party of abolitionists tried to steal forty slaves from Morgan Walker in Independence, Missouri. J.H. McMurray, author of the article, writes: "Walker told them to take the negroes, and commenced shooting. One of the gang fell dead on the steps; one was taken prisoner, and the messenger thought two others were killed."
Object Type: Newspaper Article
Date: December 11, 1860

Title: Correspondence of the Kansas Territory Executive Department
Description: These documents, dated between 1855 and 1856, relate to the organization and administration of the Kansas Territorial Militia, Southern Division. The documents address officer appointments, military commissions, arms requisitions, and company requests to be mustered out of service. Included among the correspondence are several letters written by Capt. John Donaldson, Company A, 2nd Regiment Infantry, to Gov. Geary regarding criminal charges brought against him.
Date: 1855-1856

Title: From William Hutchinson and H. Miles Moore to Daniel Woodson and Col. Cook
Description: This letter, dated September 2, 1856, was sent by William Hutchinson and H. Miles Moore in Lawrence, Kansas, to Acting Kansas Gov. Daniel Woodson and Col. Cook. Hutchinson and Moore contend that after they sent two men to meet with Woodson about crimes against their property, these men were taken by a mob and detained in Lecompton, Kansas. They ask that Woodson explain why the two men continue to be detained when there are no legal charges against them.
Date: September 2, 1856

Title: From John Stillman Brown to William Brown
Description: 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."
Date: February 14, 1858

Title: From Sara Robinson to My Dear Sister
Description: This letter is from Sara Robinson, the wife of Kansas Gov. Charles Robinson, to her sister. Robinson, writing from Lawrence, Kansas on January 5, 1858, tells her sister that an election was held yesterday for the Lecompton Constitution. She states that Charles opposed the constitution and that voting against it was the only option that "promised victory to the Free State men." She also mentions that he has been attending sessions of the Topeka Legislature.
Date: January 5, 1858

Title: From S. Norton to John W. Geary
Description: This letter, dated September 9, 1856, was sent to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary by S. Norton and seven other citizens of Leavenworth, Kansas. Writing from St. Louis, Norton states that on September 2, 1856, he and the others were ordered to leave Leavenworth by Capt. Emory and his “armed posse.” They seek protection from Geary so they may safely return to their homes.
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 9, 1856

Title: From William H. Doah to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on August 16, 1859 by Capt. William H. Doah, Company B, Missouri Militia, in Butler, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Doah states that after Kansan William Wright (alias Pickles) was imprisoned for murder and robbery in Vernon County, Missouri, the citizens of that county “were threatened with violence by the outlaws of Kansas.” Doah says that James Montgomery later sent a letter demanding Pickles’ immediate release. Doah writes that he plans to “repel invasion and meet out justice” to the Kansas guerrillas; if Stewart does not approve of this plan, Doah says he will resign as Captain of Company B.
Date: August 16, 1859

Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865

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