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The 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary reflects the 19th century understanding of the word ruffian as a "scoundrel, rascal, or unprincipled, deceitful, brutal and unreliable person". Among the first to use the term border ruffian in connection with the slavery issue in Kansas was the Herald of Freedom, a newspaper published in Lawrence ...
G. Murlin Welch, a historian of the territorial period described the Jayhawkers as bands of men that were willing to fight, kill, and rob for a variety of motives that included defense against pro-slavery "Border Ruffians", abolition, driving pro-slavery settlers from their claims of land, revenge, and/or plunder and personal profit. [19]
A reader asked about the history behind a memorial to Charles Carroll Spalding in Penn Valley Park. We unearthed the complicated story behind Kansas City’s first historian.
Finally, the Border Ruffians charged, and Brown's forces were forced into a retreat through the woods and back across a river. [1] Five of the Free-Staters were killed, including Frederick Brown, with several others wounded. The pro-slavery forces, instead of trying to catch Brown's men, then felt free to turn their attention to the town itself.
Washington served as a Border Ruffian in a company under the command of Captain Henry Clay Pate. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] On June 2, 1856, Washington and his company were attacked at their encampment near Baldwin City, Kansas by anti-slavery Free-Stater forces under the leadership of abolitionist John Brown .
Isley wrote of the Sharps rifle in 1907, saying, "The very name 'Sharps rifle' was to become a term to sober the border ruffian and give him serious pause. This breech-loading rifle was a new invention and extremely effective in comparison, the Missourian was poorly armed, carrying either a squirrel-knife, a heavy buffalo-gun, or a clumsy army ...
Anti-slavery proponents during the "Bleeding Kansas" period of the later 1850s were called Free-Staters and Free-Soilers, and fought against pro-slavery Border Ruffians from Missouri. The animosity escalated throughout the 1850s, culminating in numerous skirmishes and devastation on both sides of the question.
The free-state leaders sent George W. Deitzler to the east to secure weapons from other anti-slavery people. Amos Lawrence and others sent crates full of rifles, to which they labeled "books" because "the border ruffians had no use for books, [and] they came through without being disturbed."