Speaker 1: School of Humans. Well, hello, hello, filth heads. Here we are.
Speaker 2: I am recording this on Tuesday, November fifth, twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: which is the day before the election, so yesterday if
Speaker 2: you're an avid listener like that. So I don't know
Speaker 2: what the results of the election are in this current moment.
Speaker 2: Did anything bad happen? Is there a civil war going on?
Speaker 2: What's going on?
Speaker 1: Tell me?
Speaker 2: And since this is coming out after the election, I
Speaker 2: had a really big choice for today's episode. I was like,
Speaker 2: I could do something that has absolutely nothing to do
Speaker 2: with elections and treat ourselves to a little escapism, or
Speaker 2: I could just really lean into it and do something
Speaker 2: that's upsetting. And if you guys can believe it, I
Speaker 2: went with upsetting. So let's look at another election, an
Speaker 2: election that did in fact lead to a civil war.
Speaker 2: In fact, the Civil War one of those controversial elections
Speaker 2: in American history, and it wasn't even for a president.
Speaker 2: It was for Kansas during an era that came to
Speaker 2: be known as Bleeding Kansas. No, Kansas was not on
Speaker 2: its period. This was from eighteen fifty four ish to
Speaker 2: eighteen sixty one, when Kansas became a state, and it
Speaker 2: was a time when Americans were deciding whether or not
Speaker 2: Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or
Speaker 2: a slave state. And if you can imagine, a lot
Speaker 2: of people had some very strong opinions about that, which
Speaker 2: led to a period of violence, fighting, deaths, and then
Speaker 2: the Civil War. Cue the theme song. This is American
Speaker 2: Filth and I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you
Speaker 2: a filthy story from American history. This week's episode a
Speaker 2: week of Bleeding Kansas. Okay, so a whole bunch of
Speaker 2: shit went down during the Bleeding Kansas era from eighteen
Speaker 2: fifty four to eighteen sixty one, And what I want
Speaker 2: to do is focus on one week of it, which
Speaker 2: was in May eighteen fifty six, where a lot of violent,
Speaker 2: bad stuff happened. But first we're going to do a
Speaker 2: little summary about what the heck was going on. So
Speaker 2: the big thing that started all of this was the
Speaker 2: passage of the Kansas Nebraska Act of eighteen fifty four.
Speaker 2: This Act was introduced by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who
Speaker 2: the people called the Little Giant because he was short,
Speaker 2: a mere five to four, but he was loud, and
Speaker 2: he was a big proponent of this thing called popular sovereignty,
Speaker 2: the idea that territories should be able to decide for
Speaker 2: themselves whether or not they wanted to allow slavery. And
Speaker 2: so what the Kansas Nebraska Act did was it repealed
Speaker 2: the Missouri Compromise of eighteen twenty, which had prohibited slavery
Speaker 2: north of the thirty six thirty parallel. So when the
Speaker 2: US opened up Kansas for settlement, a lot of abolitionist
Speaker 2: groups were like, we got to get to Kansas so
Speaker 2: that when they do a vote, we make sure it's
Speaker 2: not a slave state. But then also the pro slavery
Speaker 2: people were like, we got to do the same thing,
Speaker 2: but make sure it is a slave state. So a
Speaker 2: lot of abolitionists and free staters. Free staters, those were
Speaker 2: the people who opposed the expansion of slavery. They moved
Speaker 2: into the Kansas territory. So most of the actual settlers
Speaker 2: who were in Kansas opposed slavery. But when the election
Speaker 2: came around in eighteen fifty five deciding whether or not
Speaker 2: it's a free state or a slave state, the pro
Speaker 2: slavery people one because of election fraud. Ding ding ding ding.
Speaker 2: Have you guys heard about this? Okay, here's what happened.
Speaker 2: There's this main group who I consider the proud Boys
Speaker 2: of Yore. They were called the Border Ruffians. These dudes
Speaker 2: lived in neighboring Missouri, and even before the election in
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty five, they started harassing and intimidating abolitionist settlements.
Speaker 2: But they lived in Missouri. They didn't actually live in Kansas.
Speaker 2: And so came the day of the election on March thirtieth,
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty five. Now, what this election was doing was
Speaker 2: electing delegates to a new legislature, and depending on the
Speaker 2: sentiments of the delegates, Kansas would be a pro slavery
Speaker 2: or a abolitionist state essentially.
Speaker 1: And what the Border Ruffians.
Speaker 2: Did, those dudes from Missouri, is they came over and
Speaker 2: with a loophole in the voting system, they ended up
Speaker 2: casting their votes.
Speaker 1: They're like, I don't live here, but I'm going to vote.
Speaker 1: And not only that, they.
Speaker 2: Also stuffed the ballot boxes with hundreds of additional fake ballots.
Speaker 2: And the result of this election fraud well, thirty seven
Speaker 2: of the thirty nine seats in that legislature were won
Speaker 2: by pro slavery people. But the free Staters, the abolitionists,
Speaker 2: they were like, what the hell this is a load
Speaker 2: of bull crap.
Speaker 1: They don't even actually live here.
Speaker 2: They committed voter fraud, and it was pretty obvious that
Speaker 2: voter fraud happened because a lot more ballots were passed,
Speaker 2: because a lot more ballots were cast than people who
Speaker 2: actually lived in Kansas. Because remember the people who actually
Speaker 2: lived in Kansas, most of those people were against slavery.
Speaker 2: And so the free Staters were pissed and they're trying
Speaker 2: to put pressure on the territorial governor and your reader
Speaker 2: to do something. But he ended up pissing off everyone
Speaker 2: by being noncommittal. Instead of being like, oh, no, shut up,
Speaker 2: Free Staters, these elections were correct, what he did was like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to say eleven of these elections were fraudulent.
Speaker 1: He was like, I'm going to go somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 2: And then when they did a special election for those
Speaker 2: eleven seats, free Staters won eight of them, but still
Speaker 2: the pro slavery delegates outnumbered the free Staters twenty nine
Speaker 2: to ten. By can you believe it, That's not the
Speaker 2: end of this drama. After these special elections, the pro
Speaker 2: slavery people were like, ugh, those special elections don't count.
Speaker 2: We're going to set up shop with the original delegates
Speaker 2: from the March election, and the Free.
Speaker 1: Staters were like, well, fuck all of that.
Speaker 2: All of these elections were fraudulent, and they set up
Speaker 2: their own rival government in Topeka. The president at the
Speaker 2: time was President Pierce, and he was really into slavery,
Speaker 2: and so he was really pissed off at all the
Speaker 2: Free Staters, and he was pissed off by the territorial
Speaker 2: governor for allowing a special election, and he was pissed
Speaker 2: off that they were starting another rival government at Topeka.
Speaker 2: And so to Andrew Reader, he was like, you're a
Speaker 2: super little bit, You're fired. And then he appointed this
Speaker 2: new guy who was pro slavery named Wilson Shannon. And
Speaker 2: Andrew Reader literally fled Kansas in disguise because he was
Speaker 2: scared someone would shoot him in the face.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, there was a lot of stuff going on
Speaker 1: that was the political side of it.
Speaker 2: On the violent side of it, since eighteen fifty four,
Speaker 2: border Ruffians had been coming into Kansas to kind of
Speaker 2: beat up on pre Staters, but then abolitionists would also
Speaker 2: attack pro slavery people, so there was a lot of hitting, shooting,
Speaker 2: and killing people going on. By eighteen fifty six. Many
Speaker 2: people had died in total during these years. Some historians
Speaker 2: think like fifty five people died, other people think more
Speaker 2: like two hundred. And also it was kind of like
Speaker 2: a free for all because the federal government wasn't really
Speaker 2: doing anything about the violence. So let's go to that
Speaker 2: week in May eighteen fifty six when a lot of
Speaker 2: people got the shit beat out of them or were killed.
Speaker 2: The first huge event that happened was on May twenty first,
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty six, the day of the sacking of Lawrence.
Speaker 2: So Lawrence was a town that had been founded by
Speaker 2: anti slavery settlers, primarily from the New England Immigrant Aid Company.
Speaker 2: These are people who are like, we got to get
Speaker 2: to Kansas, we got to live there to make sure
Speaker 2: it's a free state. And Lawrence was considered a stronghold
Speaker 2: of the free state movement. One of their enemies was
Speaker 2: Sheriff Samuel J.
Speaker 1: Jones.
Speaker 2: A month before this, Shareff Jones had attempted to arrest
Speaker 2: several free state settlers who were implicated in the resistance
Speaker 2: against pro slavery forces. He was in Lawrence trying to
Speaker 2: serve some warrants to some abolitionists, but while he was
Speaker 2: camped outside trying to make these arrests. He was shot
Speaker 2: by an unknown assailant in the night. The bullet wounded
Speaker 2: him and either his back or shoulder, not exactly clear,
Speaker 2: but he survived the injury, and now he was super pissed.
Speaker 2: He wanted his revenge against Lawrence, specifically, so he in
Speaker 2: eight hundred Border Ruffians gathered outside of Lawrence ready to
Speaker 2: attack on May twenty first, but before the onslaught, obviously,
Speaker 2: to get them nice and ready for the attack, they
Speaker 2: had a pep talk from a former US senator, Democrat
Speaker 2: David Brice Atkinson from Missouri. Atkinson was extremely pro slavery,
Speaker 2: like he was all in for the repeal of the
Speaker 2: Missouri Compromise, and he was really nervous about Kansas becoming
Speaker 2: a free state. He was like, if they're a free state,
Speaker 2: it's right next to Missouri. In Missouri, they're going to
Speaker 2: make us be a free state. In eighteen fifty five,
Speaker 2: he wrote this letter to a colleague about repealing the
Speaker 2: Missouri Compromise. We are playing for a mighty stake. If
Speaker 2: we win, we carry slavery to the Pacific Ocean. If
Speaker 2: we fail, we lose Missouri. Arkansas and Texas and all
Speaker 2: the territories. The game must be played boldly. So this guy,
Speaker 2: this Senator, on May twenty first, eighteen fifty six, he
Speaker 2: was also in Lawrence, where that eight hundred person mob
Speaker 2: was ready to attack, and he personally incited it. What
Speaker 2: a politician in citing a mob? Never heard of that before?
Speaker 2: He said, gentlemen, officers and soldiers, this is the most
Speaker 2: glory day of my life. This is the day I
Speaker 2: am a border Ruffian. And now allow me and true
Speaker 2: border Ruffian style, to extend to you the right hand
Speaker 2: of fellowship. Men of the South. I greet you as
Speaker 2: border Ruffian brothers. Though I have seen more years than
Speaker 2: most of you, I am yet young in the same
Speaker 2: glorious cause that has made you leave your homes in
Speaker 2: the South. Boys, I am one of your number today,
Speaker 2: and today you will have a glorious.
Speaker 1: Duty to perform.
Speaker 2: Today you will earn laurels that will ever show you
Speaker 2: to have been true sons of the noble South. Now, boys,
Speaker 2: let your work be well done. Faint not as you
Speaker 2: approach the city of Lawrence, but remembering your mission, act
Speaker 2: with true Southern heroism, and at the word spring your
Speaker 2: bloodhounds at home upon that accursed abolition whole, break through
Speaker 2: everything that may oppose you, never flinching and courage, Yes,
Speaker 2: or Ruffians, draw your revolt and bowied knives and cool
Speaker 2: them in the heart's blood of all those dogs that
Speaker 2: dare defend the breathing whole of hell.
Speaker 1: Little dramatic, is it not.
Speaker 2: And so after this speech about the hellhole of abolitionists,
Speaker 2: the eight hundred border Ruffians attacked. The pro slavery mob,
Speaker 2: ransacked and looted the town. They destroyed the offices of
Speaker 2: the two Free State newspapers, the Herald of Freedom and
Speaker 2: the Kansas Free State, as well as the Free State Hotel,
Speaker 2: which was a prominent building considered as a base for
Speaker 2: anti slavery supporters. The mob shot at the hotel with
Speaker 2: a cannon and then burned the whole thing down.
Speaker 1: The town was.
Speaker 2: Destroyed and several pro staters were killed. The sacking of
Speaker 2: Lawrence was covered in the press across the country.
Speaker 1: People were shocked.
Speaker 2: They were like, what the heck is going on in Kansas?
Speaker 2: Everyone was going crazy. Abolitionists, pro slavery people. They hated
Speaker 2: each other. The country was dividing. And then on the
Speaker 2: floor of the US Senate, there was even more violence.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after these soothing advertisements.
Speaker 1: On May twenty.
Speaker 2: First, eighteen fifty six, the Border Ruffians sacked the town
Speaker 2: of Lawrence in Kansas.
Speaker 1: It was covered in the press.
Speaker 2: Tensions were rising between abolitionists and pro slavery people. And
Speaker 2: in this same week, just a couple of days before
Speaker 2: this happened, on May nineteenth and twentieth, Senator Charles Sumner
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts, who was an outspoken abolitionist, made a speech
Speaker 2: titled The Crime against Kansas. And this speech was long
Speaker 2: as hell. It took him five hours to deliver over
Speaker 2: two days. He also printed it out for everyone. How nice.
Speaker 2: It was one hundred and twelve pages long, and.
Speaker 1: He memorized the whole thing. That's awesome. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that because I could never.
Speaker 2: And along with being an abolitionist, some pro slavery people
Speaker 2: hated him because of his fashion choices. Instead of wearing
Speaker 2: all black suits, he liked to wear these tweed coats
Speaker 2: and lavender trousers. But in the speech he condemned the
Speaker 2: pro slavery forces involved in the violence of Bleeding Kansas,
Speaker 2: being like those border Ruffians, they're the instigators. His speech
Speaker 2: was also super critical of the Kansas Nebraska Act, and
Speaker 2: he roasted many of the pro slavery senators involved, like
Speaker 2: Senator Douglas, who it was basically responsible for the whole bill.
Speaker 2: Senator Sumner said this about him. It called him a brutal,
Speaker 2: vulgar man without delicacy or scholarship, who looks as if
Speaker 2: he needs clean linen and should be put under a
Speaker 2: shower bath. Roasted in the speech, Sumner called him a noisome,
Speaker 2: squat and nameless animal, not a proper model for an
Speaker 2: American Senator. Sumner also roasted Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina.
Speaker 2: Sumner accused him of taking a quote mistress who, though
Speaker 2: ugly to others, is always lovely to him, though polluted
Speaker 2: in the sight of the world, is chased in his sight.
Speaker 2: I mean the harlot slavery wow roasted. So Senator Sumner
Speaker 2: delivers this speech May nineteenth, May twentieth, The next day
Speaker 2: is the sacking of Lawrence.
Speaker 1: Everyone's in a tizzy.
Speaker 2: And then the next day, on May twenty second, one
Speaker 2: of those pro slavery senators decided to beat the shit
Speaker 2: out of Sumner and his goddamn lavender pants. So what
Speaker 2: happened May twenty second Representative Preston Brooks, who was a
Speaker 2: relative of Senator Butler, remember one of the guys who
Speaker 2: was roasted in the speech. He confronted Sumner at his
Speaker 2: desk in the Senate Chamber and without warning, Brooks began
Speaker 2: hitting Sumner with a heavy cane made out of a
Speaker 2: hard type of rubber. Brooks struck him repeatedly. Sumner was
Speaker 2: trapped behind his desk. He was so desperate to get
Speaker 2: away that even though his desk was bolted to the floor,
Speaker 2: he eventually managed to wrench it free. However, Brooks had
Speaker 2: him trapped and continued to beat him until the cane
Speaker 2: broke and boy howdy again. Sumner had some pretty intense injuries,
Speaker 2: including head trauma, and because of this beating he was
Speaker 2: unable to return to the Senate for three years from
Speaker 2: the physical and psychological effects. I mean, can you imagine
Speaker 2: being beaten at your office? I mean, sometimes I beat
Speaker 2: my head into my desk, but that's a whole different thing,
Speaker 2: and so if you can believe it. This continued to
Speaker 2: escalate and deepen the divisions between the North and the South,
Speaker 2: between the abolitionists and the pro slavery people.
Speaker 1: People are like, God, damn, the US government is breaking down.
Speaker 2: We're so polarized. Now, let's go back to Kansas. In
Speaker 2: that same week, where violence continued, but this time it
Speaker 2: was the pro staters who decided to retaliate.
Speaker 1: Entered John Brown.
Speaker 2: John Brown was a big abolitionist who believed that slavery
Speaker 2: was a moral abomination that must be eradicated by any
Speaker 2: means necessary aka violence. He was really pissed off about
Speaker 2: what happened at Lawrence, and he was also really upset
Speaker 2: about what happened to Senator Sumner, and he was like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, you gotta fight fire with frickin' fire, So
Speaker 2: let's go fuck up some pro slavery people. So on
Speaker 2: the night of May twenty fourth, eighteen fifty six, two
Speaker 2: days after the caning of Sumner and three days after
Speaker 2: the sacking of Lawrence, John Brown, along with a small
Speaker 2: militia that included four of his sons, a family affair,
Speaker 2: and a few other people, went to the pro slavery
Speaker 2: settlement of Potawa Tommy Creek. Around ten pm. The group
Speaker 2: scurried into the darkness. They went to the cabin of
Speaker 2: one pro slavery settler, and forced him outside with his
Speaker 2: two sons. Brown shot him in the head, and then
Speaker 2: the rest of them hacked apart his sons with swords
Speaker 2: and knives. Then they went to another cabin where they
Speaker 2: seized a man whose wife screamed at them and was
Speaker 2: also like, hey, I have the measles, don't kill him.
Speaker 2: And they hacked that guy to death as well, and
Speaker 2: then just left his body by the road. Then they
Speaker 2: went across the creek and came upon another group of men.
Speaker 2: They questioned them on their views about slavery, and then
Speaker 2: when they didn't like one of the men's answers, they
Speaker 2: killed him and threw his body in the creek.
Speaker 1: Fucking brutal.
Speaker 2: After this happened, if you can believe it, they caused
Speaker 2: a massive shockwave throughout Kansas and the rest of the
Speaker 2: nation and intensified the violence in the region. It led
Speaker 2: to more attacks from both pro slavery and anti slavery forces,
Speaker 2: and even abolitionists were divided on this. Some people were like, oh,
Speaker 2: John Brown, that was fucking awesome. Those people deserve to die.
Speaker 2: They fucking our pieces as shit. But then other ones
Speaker 2: were like, let's try to distance ourselves from John Brown.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we actually want that to be
Speaker 2: part of our movement. And also remember at this point
Speaker 2: that there were those elections where all the Border Ruffians
Speaker 2: did the fraud guys.
Speaker 1: Remember that from the beginning of the episode, Well.
Speaker 2: That was still a question because there was the one
Speaker 2: government that the pro slavery people had and then there
Speaker 2: were the free Staters in Topeka, and nobody was agreeing
Speaker 2: on what the actual result of those elections were. So
Speaker 2: at this point the US Congress was like, I guess
Speaker 2: we should check this out and see what's going on.
Speaker 1: So in July.
Speaker 2: Eighteen fifty six, they sent a committee to talk to people.
Speaker 2: They went around with surveys, talked to the settlers there,
Speaker 2: and what they discovered was they're like, hey, most of
Speaker 2: the settlers in Kansas, the vast majority, are people who
Speaker 2: want Kansas to be a free state. And they were like, well,
Speaker 2: I guess, based on the evidence of the people who
Speaker 2: actually live here, this legislature doesn't reflect their views.
Speaker 1: And so they were like, Dang, dang, Dan election fraud.
Speaker 1: It's for real.
Speaker 2: But even that didn't end the fighting and the violence.
Speaker 2: John Brown and the Border Ruffians were involved in many
Speaker 2: more skirmishes across Kansas. In eighteen fifty eight, a new
Speaker 2: governor of the territory was appointed, and this guy, John Geary,
Speaker 2: restored order for the most part. But even after that,
Speaker 2: people were still beating the shit out of each other,
Speaker 2: and a few more people died, and then an eighteen
Speaker 2: six Kansas entered the Union as a free state, and
Speaker 2: a few months later the Civil War started. This is
Speaker 2: going to sound super obvious and stupid, but bleeding Kansas
Speaker 2: was a huge thing, and it was kind of like
Speaker 2: this microcosm of what was happening more broadly across the
Speaker 2: United States. There were deepening national divisions. Obviously, the national
Speaker 2: politics were going to shit. People were literally fighting. Someone
Speaker 2: literally almost got beaten to death with a cane. There
Speaker 2: was bloodshed, There was turmoil, and no one was able
Speaker 2: to do anything about it. There was no legislative compromises
Speaker 2: that were working.
Speaker 1: The North and the South.
Speaker 2: Abolitionist pro slavery people had deeply different morals. Everything was
Speaker 2: breaking down on the question of whether or not there
Speaker 2: should be slavery. So when people say stuff like, oh,
Speaker 2: the Civil War it was all about economics, tell them
Speaker 2: to shut the fuck up. What are the economics they
Speaker 2: are referring to the economics of slavery perhaps, or they'll
Speaker 2: say something.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, it's about states rights. Yeah, it's states rights
Speaker 1: to do what. Oh to have slaves or not to
Speaker 1: have slaves. Shut up.
Speaker 2: And you remember those border Ruffians, Well, a lot of
Speaker 2: them became bushwhackers during the Civil War. These were guerrilla
Speaker 2: fighters on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Speaker 2: In eighteen sixty three, the town of Lawrence got sacked
Speaker 2: again and one hundred and forty three people were killed
Speaker 2: by Confederate guerrilla fighters.
Speaker 1: John Brown didn't make it to the Civil War.
Speaker 2: John Brown continued fighting in Kansas and then he went
Speaker 2: over to Virginia where he raided a federal armory at
Speaker 2: Harper's Ferry. In October eighteen fifty nine, he was arrested,
Speaker 2: and actually he was arrested by then Colonel Robert E. Lee,
Speaker 2: and he was put on trial for treason, murder, and
Speaker 2: inciting a slave insurrection. He was found guilty in all
Speaker 2: counts and was sentenced to death. He was hanging in
Speaker 2: Virginia on December second, eighteen fifty nine. When John Brown
Speaker 2: was on trial, he never backed down. He still believed
Speaker 2: in his morals thought his cause was just. He said,
Speaker 2: if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my
Speaker 2: life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and
Speaker 2: mingle my blood further with the blood of my children
Speaker 2: and with the blood of millions in this slave country
Speaker 2: whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel and unjust enactments,
Speaker 2: I submit, So let it be done. Hoo ee. That
Speaker 2: was an intense episode, guys. A lot of things happened
Speaker 2: all because of an election in eighteen fifty five. I
Speaker 2: hope you guys are doing well out there. I hope
Speaker 2: things are okay. I feel like the Internet will still
Speaker 2: be working at this point, but if a civil war
Speaker 2: has erupted, I'm happy to have this episode just for
Speaker 2: the ether.
Speaker 1: And don't worry. Next week we're gonna get into some.
Speaker 2: Really stupid, filthy shit a little palate cleanser as we
Speaker 2: head into our uncertain future. On every episode of American Filth,
Speaker 2: we learn a lesson, and I think the lesson from
Speaker 2: today's episode is that people from Missouri should just stay
Speaker 2: at home, like, don't go bother those people in Kansas.
Speaker 1: Just shut up and sit down. Write cue the credits.
Speaker 2: American Field is a production of School of Humans and
Speaker 2: My Heart Podcast. This episode was written and produced by
Speaker 2: me Gabby Watts. Our theme song is by Jesse Niswanger.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Elsie Crowley, and Brandon Barr.
Speaker 2: You guys can follow the show at American filth on Instagram,
Speaker 2: and also remember, leave us some stars, leave us a review,
Speaker 2: Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell everyone about the
Speaker 2: show so that they listen. And depending on the state
Speaker 2: of our country, I'll talk to you guys next week.
Speaker 3: Bye.
Speaker 1: School of Humans.