History of slavery in Kansas

Slavery in Kansas remained small-scale and mainly at the household level. Since cotton never had a significant role in Kansas' early agrarian economy, there were a few plantations and slaves along the Missouri River during the pre-Territorial period. Starting with the organization of Kansas Territory in 1854, there was a state-level civil war over slavery which inhibited the development of the institution of slavery.

Main article: Bleeding Kansas

History

The number of slaves in Kansas Territory was estimated at 200.[1] Men were engaged as farm hands, and women and children were employed in domestic work.[2][3]

The presence of slaveowners in Kansas, particularly slaveowners who had migrated from the neighboring slave state of Missouri in order to guarantee the future state's entry into the Union as a slave state, served as a motivating factor for Northern abolitionist movements to move into the Kansas territory in order to prevent such efforts from succeeding. This resulted in the armed conflict known as Bleeding Kansas, a prelude to the Civil War. The slavery ceased to exist in Kansas after it was admitted in the Union on January 29, 1861.

The slavery ceased to exist in Kansas after it was admitted in the Union on January 29, 1861, following the Territorial Legislature's bill that was passed on February 23, 1860 over the governor's veto to abolish the slavery.

In October 1862, the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment engaged the Confederate forces at Island Mound, in Bates County, Missouri.[4]

References
  1. Cory, Charles Easterbrook. "Slavery in Kansas." Kansas Historical Collection 7 (1901-1902): 229-242.
  2. Kansapedia: Slavery in Kansas Territory, Kansas Historical Society
  3. Immigration and Early Settlement: Slaves in Kansas Territory, Territorial Kansas, Kansas Historical Society
  4. Mutti Burke, Diane. Slavery on the Western Border: Missouri’s Slave System and its Collapse during the Civil War, Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865.

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