On This Day In American History: Lawrence Kansas Is Sacked In Prelude to Civil War

As a prelude to what was to come and the violence that would follow on this day, May 21^st, 1856 Lawrence Kansas in Douglas County is ransacked by pro-slavery forces led by its county Sheriff.  Anti-Slavery forces were counting on Kansas to be admitted as a free state as it was founded by anti-slavery settlers.  Though only one death vas recorded in the incident from the pro-slavery side and was accidental it would be a precursor to what would be historically called “Bleeding Kansas.”  The following year on September 7^th, 1857 the first of three attempts as a constitution for the state required for admittance to the Union began:  (1) the Lecompton Constitution; (2) the Leavenworth Constitution; and finally (3) the Wyandotte Constitution.  It would not be until January 21, 1861 when the despised President James Buchanan by free-state settlers would sign the bill making Kansas the 34^th state as the prospects of a Civil War hovered over the horizon.