As a prelude to what was to come and the violence that would
follow on this day, May 21st, 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 7th,
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 34th state as the
prospects of a Civil War hovered over the horizon.
