Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, Kansas was the newest U.S. state, admitted just months earlier in January. The state had formally rejected slavery by popular vote and vowed to fight on the side of the Union, though ideological divisions with neighboring Missouri, a slave state, had led to violent conflict in previous years and persisted for the duration of the war.
Slavery was a divisive issue in the United States. It was a major issue during the writing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, the subject of political crises in the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 and was the primary cause of the American Civil War in 1861. Just before the Civil War, there were 19 free states and 15 slave ...
Since cotton never had a significant role in Kansas' early agrarian economy, there were a few plantations and slaves along the Missouri River during the pre-Territorial period. Starting with the organization of Kansas Territory in 1854, there was a state-level civil war over slavery which inhibited the development of the institution of slavery.
In the many decades between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, such divisions became increasingly irreconcilable and contentious. [1] Events in the 1850s culminated with the election of the anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln as president on November 6, 1860.
1861, January 29: Kansas was admitted into the Union as a free state under the Wyandotte Constitution. 1861, May 25:Great Seal of the State of Kansas was established by a joint resolution adopted by the Kansas Legislature. 1861, June 3: First Kansas regiment called to duty in the American Civil War.
For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us
The federal district, which is legally part of no state and under the sole jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress, permitted slavery until the American Civil War. For the history of the abolition of the slave trade in the district and the federal government's one and only compensated emancipation program, see slavery in the District of Columbia.
However, guerrilla warfare and raids from pro-slavery forces, many spilling over from Missouri, occurred during the Civil War. [23] At the start of the war in April 1861, the Kansas government had no well-organized militia, no arms, accoutrements or supplies, nothing with which to meet the demands, except the united will of officials and citizens.