School of Humans. Well, hello, hello, filth heads. Here we are.
I am recording this on Tuesday, November fifth, twenty twenty four, which is the day before the election, so yesterday if you're an avid listener like that. So I don't know what the results of the election are in this current moment. Did anything bad happen? Is there a civil war going on? What's going on?
Tell me?
And since this is coming out after the election, I had a really big choice for today's episode. I was like, I could do something that has absolutely nothing to do with elections and treat ourselves to a little escapism, or I could just really lean into it and do something that's upsetting. And if you guys can believe it, I went with upsetting. So let's look at another election, an election that did in fact lead to a civil war.
In fact, the Civil War one of those controversial elections in American history, and it wasn't even for a president. It was for Kansas during an era that came to be known as Bleeding Kansas. No, Kansas was not on its period. This was from eighteen fifty four ish to eighteen sixty one, when Kansas became a state, and it was a time when Americans were deciding whether or not Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or
a slave state. And if you can imagine, a lot of people had some very strong opinions about that, which led to a period of violence, fighting, deaths, and then the Civil War. Cue the theme song. This is American Filth and I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you a filthy story from American history. This week's episode a
week of Bleeding Kansas. Okay, so a whole bunch of shit went down during the Bleeding Kansas era from eighteen fifty four to eighteen sixty one, And what I want to do is focus on one week of it, which was in May eighteen fifty six, where a lot of violent, bad stuff happened. But first we're going to do a little summary about what the heck was going on. So the big thing that started all of this was the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Act of eighteen fifty four.
This Act was introduced by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who the people called the Little Giant because he was short, a mere five to four, but he was loud, and he was a big proponent of this thing called popular sovereignty, the idea that territories should be able to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to allow slavery. And so what the Kansas Nebraska Act did was it repealed the Missouri Compromise of eighteen twenty, which had prohibited slavery
north of the thirty six thirty parallel. So when the US opened up Kansas for settlement, a lot of abolitionist groups were like, we got to get to Kansas so that when they do a vote, we make sure it's not a slave state. But then also the pro slavery people were like, we got to do the same thing, but make sure it is a slave state. So a lot of abolitionists and free staters. Free staters, those were the people who opposed the expansion of slavery. They moved
into the Kansas territory. So most of the actual settlers who were in Kansas opposed slavery. But when the election came around in eighteen fifty five deciding whether or not it's a free state or a slave state, the pro slavery people one because of election fraud. Ding ding ding ding. Have you guys heard about this? Okay, here's what happened. There's this main group who I consider the proud Boys
of Yore. They were called the Border Ruffians. These dudes lived in neighboring Missouri, and even before the election in eighteen fifty five, they started harassing and intimidating abolitionist settlements. But they lived in Missouri. They didn't actually live in Kansas. And so came the day of the election on March thirtieth,
eighteen fifty five. Now, what this election was doing was electing delegates to a new legislature, and depending on the sentiments of the delegates, Kansas would be a pro slavery or a abolitionist state essentially.
And what the Border Ruffians.
Did, those dudes from Missouri, is they came over and with a loophole in the voting system, they ended up casting their votes.
They're like, I don't live here, but I'm going to vote. And not only that, they.
Also stuffed the ballot boxes with hundreds of additional fake ballots. And the result of this election fraud well, thirty seven of the thirty nine seats in that legislature were won by pro slavery people. But the free Staters, the abolitionists, they were like, what the hell this is a load of bull crap.
They don't even actually live here.
They committed voter fraud, and it was pretty obvious that voter fraud happened because a lot more ballots were passed, because a lot more ballots were cast than people who actually lived in Kansas. Because remember the people who actually lived in Kansas, most of those people were against slavery. And so the free Staters were pissed and they're trying to put pressure on the territorial governor and your reader to do something. But he ended up pissing off everyone
by being noncommittal. Instead of being like, oh, no, shut up, Free Staters, these elections were correct, what he did was like, I'm going to say eleven of these elections were fraudulent.
He was like, I'm going to go somewhere in the middle.
And then when they did a special election for those eleven seats, free Staters won eight of them, but still the pro slavery delegates outnumbered the free Staters twenty nine to ten. By can you believe it, That's not the end of this drama. After these special elections, the pro slavery people were like, ugh, those special elections don't count. We're going to set up shop with the original delegates from the March election, and the Free.
Staters were like, well, fuck all of that.
All of these elections were fraudulent, and they set up their own rival government in Topeka. The president at the time was President Pierce, and he was really into slavery, and so he was really pissed off at all the Free Staters, and he was pissed off by the territorial governor for allowing a special election, and he was pissed off that they were starting another rival government at Topeka. And so to Andrew Reader, he was like, you're a
super little bit, You're fired. And then he appointed this new guy who was pro slavery named Wilson Shannon. And Andrew Reader literally fled Kansas in disguise because he was scared someone would shoot him in the face.
So, yeah, there was a lot of stuff going on that was the political side of it.
On the violent side of it, since eighteen fifty four, border Ruffians had been coming into Kansas to kind of beat up on pre Staters, but then abolitionists would also attack pro slavery people, so there was a lot of hitting, shooting, and killing people going on. By eighteen fifty six. Many people had died in total during these years. Some historians think like fifty five people died, other people think more
like two hundred. And also it was kind of like a free for all because the federal government wasn't really doing anything about the violence. So let's go to that week in May eighteen fifty six when a lot of people got the shit beat out of them or were killed. The first huge event that happened was on May twenty first, eighteen fifty six, the day of the sacking of Lawrence. So Lawrence was a town that had been founded by anti slavery settlers, primarily from the New England Immigrant Aid Company.
These are people who are like, we got to get to Kansas, we got to live there to make sure it's a free state. And Lawrence was considered a stronghold of the free state movement. One of their enemies was Sheriff Samuel J.
Jones.
A month before this, Shareff Jones had attempted to arrest several free state settlers who were implicated in the resistance against pro slavery forces. He was in Lawrence trying to serve some warrants to some abolitionists, but while he was camped outside trying to make these arrests. He was shot by an unknown assailant in the night. The bullet wounded him and either his back or shoulder, not exactly clear, but he survived the injury, and now he was super pissed.
He wanted his revenge against Lawrence, specifically, so he in eight hundred Border Ruffians gathered outside of Lawrence ready to attack on May twenty first, but before the onslaught, obviously, to get them nice and ready for the attack, they had a pep talk from a former US senator, Democrat David Brice Atkinson from Missouri. Atkinson was extremely pro slavery, like he was all in for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and he was really nervous about Kansas becoming
a free state. He was like, if they're a free state, it's right next to Missouri. In Missouri, they're going to make us be a free state. In eighteen fifty five, he wrote this letter to a colleague about repealing the Missouri Compromise. We are playing for a mighty stake. If we win, we carry slavery to the Pacific Ocean. If we fail, we lose Missouri. Arkansas and Texas and all
the territories. The game must be played boldly. So this guy, this Senator, on May twenty first, eighteen fifty six, he was also in Lawrence, where that eight hundred person mob was ready to attack, and he personally incited it. What a politician in citing a mob? Never heard of that before? He said, gentlemen, officers and soldiers, this is the most glory day of my life. This is the day I am a border Ruffian. And now allow me and true border Ruffian style, to extend to you the right hand
of fellowship. Men of the South. I greet you as border Ruffian brothers. Though I have seen more years than most of you, I am yet young in the same glorious cause that has made you leave your homes in the South. Boys, I am one of your number today, and today you will have a glorious.
Duty to perform.
Today you will earn laurels that will ever show you to have been true sons of the noble South. Now, boys,
let your work be well done. Faint not as you approach the city of Lawrence, but remembering your mission, act with true Southern heroism, and at the word spring your bloodhounds at home upon that accursed abolition whole, break through everything that may oppose you, never flinching and courage, Yes, or Ruffians, draw your revolt and bowied knives and cool them in the heart's blood of all those dogs that dare defend the breathing whole of hell.
Little dramatic, is it not.
And so after this speech about the hellhole of abolitionists, the eight hundred border Ruffians attacked. The pro slavery mob, ransacked and looted the town. They destroyed the offices of the two Free State newspapers, the Herald of Freedom and the Kansas Free State, as well as the Free State Hotel, which was a prominent building considered as a base for anti slavery supporters. The mob shot at the hotel with a cannon and then burned the whole thing down.
The town was.
Destroyed and several pro staters were killed. The sacking of Lawrence was covered in the press across the country.
People were shocked.
They were like, what the heck is going on in Kansas? Everyone was going crazy. Abolitionists, pro slavery people. They hated each other. The country was dividing. And then on the floor of the US Senate, there was even more violence. We'll be right back after these soothing advertisements.
On May twenty.
First, eighteen fifty six, the Border Ruffians sacked the town of Lawrence in Kansas.
It was covered in the press.
Tensions were rising between abolitionists and pro slavery people. And in this same week, just a couple of days before this happened, on May nineteenth and twentieth, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who was an outspoken abolitionist, made a speech titled The Crime against Kansas. And this speech was long as hell. It took him five hours to deliver over two days. He also printed it out for everyone. How nice. It was one hundred and twelve pages long, and.
He memorized the whole thing. That's awesome. I'm just saying that because I could never.
And along with being an abolitionist, some pro slavery people hated him because of his fashion choices. Instead of wearing all black suits, he liked to wear these tweed coats and lavender trousers. But in the speech he condemned the pro slavery forces involved in the violence of Bleeding Kansas,
being like those border Ruffians, they're the instigators. His speech was also super critical of the Kansas Nebraska Act, and he roasted many of the pro slavery senators involved, like Senator Douglas, who it was basically responsible for the whole bill. Senator Sumner said this about him. It called him a brutal, vulgar man without delicacy or scholarship, who looks as if he needs clean linen and should be put under a
shower bath. Roasted in the speech, Sumner called him a noisome, squat and nameless animal, not a proper model for an American Senator. Sumner also roasted Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Sumner accused him of taking a quote mistress who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him, though polluted in the sight of the world, is chased in his sight.
I mean the harlot slavery wow roasted. So Senator Sumner delivers this speech May nineteenth, May twentieth, The next day is the sacking of Lawrence.
Everyone's in a tizzy.
And then the next day, on May twenty second, one of those pro slavery senators decided to beat the shit out of Sumner and his goddamn lavender pants. So what happened May twenty second Representative Preston Brooks, who was a relative of Senator Butler, remember one of the guys who was roasted in the speech. He confronted Sumner at his desk in the Senate Chamber and without warning, Brooks began hitting Sumner with a heavy cane made out of a
hard type of rubber. Brooks struck him repeatedly. Sumner was trapped behind his desk. He was so desperate to get away that even though his desk was bolted to the floor, he eventually managed to wrench it free. However, Brooks had him trapped and continued to beat him until the cane broke and boy howdy again. Sumner had some pretty intense injuries, including head trauma, and because of this beating he was unable to return to the Senate for three years from
the physical and psychological effects. I mean, can you imagine being beaten at your office? I mean, sometimes I beat my head into my desk, but that's a whole different thing, and so if you can believe it. This continued to escalate and deepen the divisions between the North and the South, between the abolitionists and the pro slavery people.
People are like, God, damn, the US government is breaking down.
We're so polarized. Now, let's go back to Kansas. In that same week, where violence continued, but this time it was the pro staters who decided to retaliate.
Entered John Brown.
John Brown was a big abolitionist who believed that slavery was a moral abomination that must be eradicated by any means necessary aka violence. He was really pissed off about what happened at Lawrence, and he was also really upset about what happened to Senator Sumner, and he was like, well, you know, you gotta fight fire with frickin' fire, So
let's go fuck up some pro slavery people. So on the night of May twenty fourth, eighteen fifty six, two days after the caning of Sumner and three days after the sacking of Lawrence, John Brown, along with a small militia that included four of his sons, a family affair, and a few other people, went to the pro slavery settlement of Potawa Tommy Creek. Around ten pm. The group scurried into the darkness. They went to the cabin of one pro slavery settler, and forced him outside with his
two sons. Brown shot him in the head, and then the rest of them hacked apart his sons with swords and knives. Then they went to another cabin where they seized a man whose wife screamed at them and was also like, hey, I have the measles, don't kill him. And they hacked that guy to death as well, and then just left his body by the road. Then they went across the creek and came upon another group of men.
They questioned them on their views about slavery, and then when they didn't like one of the men's answers, they killed him and threw his body in the creek.
Fucking brutal.
After this happened, if you can believe it, they caused a massive shockwave throughout Kansas and the rest of the nation and intensified the violence in the region. It led to more attacks from both pro slavery and anti slavery forces, and even abolitionists were divided on this. Some people were like, oh, John Brown, that was fucking awesome. Those people deserve to die. They fucking our pieces as shit. But then other ones were like, let's try to distance ourselves from John Brown.
I don't know if we actually want that to be part of our movement. And also remember at this point that there were those elections where all the Border Ruffians did the fraud guys.
Remember that from the beginning of the episode, Well.
That was still a question because there was the one government that the pro slavery people had and then there were the free Staters in Topeka, and nobody was agreeing on what the actual result of those elections were. So at this point the US Congress was like, I guess we should check this out and see what's going on.
So in July.
Eighteen fifty six, they sent a committee to talk to people. They went around with surveys, talked to the settlers there, and what they discovered was they're like, hey, most of the settlers in Kansas, the vast majority, are people who want Kansas to be a free state. And they were like, well, I guess, based on the evidence of the people who actually live here, this legislature doesn't reflect their views.
And so they were like, Dang, dang, Dan election fraud. It's for real.
But even that didn't end the fighting and the violence. John Brown and the Border Ruffians were involved in many more skirmishes across Kansas. In eighteen fifty eight, a new governor of the territory was appointed, and this guy, John Geary, restored order for the most part. But even after that, people were still beating the shit out of each other, and a few more people died, and then an eighteen six Kansas entered the Union as a free state, and
a few months later the Civil War started. This is going to sound super obvious and stupid, but bleeding Kansas was a huge thing, and it was kind of like this microcosm of what was happening more broadly across the United States. There were deepening national divisions. Obviously, the national politics were going to shit. People were literally fighting. Someone literally almost got beaten to death with a cane. There was bloodshed, There was turmoil, and no one was able
to do anything about it. There was no legislative compromises that were working.
The North and the South.
Abolitionist pro slavery people had deeply different morals. Everything was breaking down on the question of whether or not there should be slavery. So when people say stuff like, oh, the Civil War it was all about economics, tell them to shut the fuck up. What are the economics they are referring to the economics of slavery perhaps, or they'll say something.
Like, oh, it's about states rights. Yeah, it's states rights to do what. Oh to have slaves or not to have slaves. Shut up.
And you remember those border Ruffians, Well, a lot of them became bushwhackers during the Civil War. These were guerrilla fighters on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War. In eighteen sixty three, the town of Lawrence got sacked again and one hundred and forty three people were killed by Confederate guerrilla fighters.
John Brown didn't make it to the Civil War.
John Brown continued fighting in Kansas and then he went over to Virginia where he raided a federal armory at Harper's Ferry. In October eighteen fifty nine, he was arrested, and actually he was arrested by then Colonel Robert E. Lee, and he was put on trial for treason, murder, and inciting a slave insurrection. He was found guilty in all counts and was sentenced to death. He was hanging in Virginia on December second, eighteen fifty nine. When John Brown
was on trial, he never backed down. He still believed in his morals thought his cause was just. He said, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel and unjust enactments, I submit, So let it be done. Hoo ee. That was an intense episode, guys. A lot of things happened
all because of an election in eighteen fifty five. I hope you guys are doing well out there. I hope things are okay. I feel like the Internet will still be working at this point, but if a civil war has erupted, I'm happy to have this episode just for the ether.
And don't worry. Next week we're gonna get into some.
Really stupid, filthy shit a little palate cleanser as we head into our uncertain future. On every episode of American Filth, we learn a lesson, and I think the lesson from today's episode is that people from Missouri should just stay at home, like, don't go bother those people in Kansas.
Just shut up and sit down. Write cue the credits.
American Field is a production of School of Humans and My Heart Podcast. This episode was written and produced by me Gabby Watts. Our theme song is by Jesse Niswanger. Our executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Elsie Crowley, and Brandon Barr. You guys can follow the show at American filth on Instagram, and also remember, leave us some stars, leave us a review, Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell everyone about the
show so that they listen. And depending on the state of our country, I'll talk to you guys next week.
Bye.
School of Humans.