Kansas+and+Nebraska

 Bleeding Kansas, also known as the “Border War,” was between the time of 1854 and 1854. This “mini civil war” was between the Northern abolitionists and the Southern slave owners. The main question that started the war was “Will Kansas be a free or slave state?” The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was also a start of the conflict. This Act stated that Kansas had the choice to make themselves a slave or free state. Because America was expanding, people from the North and the South wanted to migrate westward causing conflict in the soon to be state government of Kansas. There were two main events that happened during these four years. The first was in 1856 called the Raid on Lawrence. A band of “Border Ruffians,” Missouri citizens, crossed their border to the city of Lawrence, a free-soil area. They burned a number of buildings but thankfully only one person was killed, but it marked the beginning of the violence to come. The second major event that happened was the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre. It happened only a few days after the Lawrence Raid, but this time, the abolitionists were the ones fighting. Under the leadership of John Brown, the abolitionists attacked a proslavery area on the Pottawatomie Creek. John Brown ordered five people to exile with a scythe. Even though the fight for Kansas was bloody and violent, killing over 200 people, the abolitionists eventually won in January of 1861 allowing the territory to enter the Union as a free from slavery state. 