Kansas

This chapter discusses the internecine warfare that erupts in Kansas after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act known as Bleeding Kansas. It focuses David Rice Atchison’s leadership of proslavery forces on the ground in Kansas while the remaining members of the Mess lead the senate fight for passage of Kansas’ proslavery constitution. The chapter concludes with the caning of Charles Sumner and the northern democracy’s devastating loses in the 1856 elections.