Chapter 14 Summary and Analysis

From its beginning as a territory, Kansas endured constant tension between pro-slavery and abolitionist groups that frequently erupted in violence and bloodshed. The Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854 declared that each territory decide for itself the question of slavery. With Nebraska choosing the abolitionist camp, pro-slavery proponents fought fiercely for Kansas. In 1855, the first election was dominated by pro-slavery voters from neighboring Missouri, and thus the first legislature was largely pro-slavery. Abolitionists objected to the vote as fixed, and began their own government and legislative body.

A few slaves were brought in to Kansas by extremists from the South, but by and large there was no slavery in Kansas, especially by the start of the Civil War. Most people in reality were sympathetic to the abolitionist cause, and several helped run the Kansas lines of the Underground Railroad to shepherd runaway slaves to...