The Kansas Nebraska Act I. E. Bleeding Kansas

Of all the events that happened in the US before 1877, the one event that completely changed the course of history was the direct result of the Kansas Nebraska act i.e. Bleeding Kansas. The Kansas Nebraska act allowed for new territories to decide if they were a free or a slave sate by popular sovereignty. It undid the compromise that was made in Missouri compromise, which designated a line of latitude to be the separation of free and slave states. The Kansas Nebraska act re ignited the differences between pro and anti-slavery sections. Violent events and fighting had become so terrible that it had to be termed as “Bleeding Kansas”.
It all began in early months of 1854 with the proposal of the democratic senator of Illinois, Stephen Douglas.
And that began a series of events that would completely redefine the history of not only that state but also of the country. In the very next month pro-slavery supporters crossed the border and founded the towns of Leavenworth and Atchison. On November 29 1845 the First election was held in Kansas. Pro-slavery Missourians flooded the state to vote, where the armed pro-slavery advocates intimidated voters and stuffed ballot boxes. Andrew Reeder was elected to be the first provincial governor of Kansas. In October 1855 abolitionist John Brown came to Kansas to fight slavery and within a month the Wakarusa War began with the shooting of a free stater named Charles Dow. During the siege, the main body of the invaders were encamped on the Wakarusa bottoms, some six miles (10 km) from Lawrence. The invading army numbered nearly 1,500 men. They were indifferently armed as a whole, although they had broken into the United States Arsenal at Liberty, Missouri, and stolen guns, cutlasses, a cannon and such munitions of war as they required. The only fatality of the war was that of the free stater Thomas Barber who was shot and murdered in the vicinity of Lawrence on December 6. It was only the intervention of the new governor, Wilson Shannon, which kept the proslavery men from attacking Lawrence. In months to come, The pro-slavery capital was moved to the Shawnee Methodist Mission in what is now Fairway, Kansas and in retaliation of the illegal first
At a settlement of soldiers in favor of slavery at Pottawatomie creek, the group seized and murdered 5 pro slavery men. On the Fourth of July in 1856, declarations of President Pierce resulted in nearly 500 U.S. Armed forces to arrive in Topeka from Ft. Leavenworth and Ft. Riley. As their cannons aimed at Constitution Hall, and the long fuses set alight, Colonel E.V. the senator’s cousin, who was beaten on the Senate floor, ordered the dispersion of the Free State Legislature A series of battles such as the battle of Osawatomie in August 1856 followed in which thousands of pro-slavery men organized themselves into armies and marched into Kansas. That very month, Brown and many of his followers attacked 400 pro-slavery soldiers. They continued to fight for 2 months during which 5 people were killed which included the son of Brown, Frederick Brown. In October 1856 Brown departed from the Kansas territory and was succeeded by John Geary whose first action was to find some common ground between the two parties and establish peace. He was able to do so in parts but couldn’t stop the intermittent violent outbreaks for the next 2 years. The last of the battles was the massacre at Marais des Cygnes in 1858, in which Border Ruffians killed 5 Free State