New england Emigrant aid company
In response to popular sovereignty and the pro-slavery movement to Kansas, the New England Emigrant Aid Company was founded to support free-state settlers. On July 24, 1854 the first settlement party arrived in Lawrence. The flow of free-state emigrants to Lawrence shaped the settlement into a center for the movement, making it a target for pro-slavery attacks.
The Emigrant Aid Company has been incorporated to protect emigrants...Its duty is to organize emigration to the West and bring it to system...With the advantages attained by such a system of effort, the territory selected...at once fill up with free inhabitants...By dispelling the fears that Kansas will be a slave State, the company will remove the only bar wich now hinders its occupation by free settlers.” |
for the emigrant, NEEAC offered both opportunity for economic advancement on the frontier and the satisfaction of participating in the holy cause of saving kansas for freedom.” |
...the pioneers of Kansas—both Western and Eastern—heard the call...At this critical period, when the hosts of slavery and freedom were marshalling for this great and decisive encounter, in their inmost souls they heard the Divine voice calling for defenders of liberty; and they obeyed the signal that pointed to Kansas as the great battle-ground.” |
Lawrence Before the attack
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Jayhawkers
"Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence", 1 July 2018, The Civil War Traveler - Youtube.
...a gang of nominally free-soil regulators, soon to be known as ‘Jayhawkers,’ began robbing, flogging, and sometimes killing southern settlers almost as fast as they arrived.” |
The Free State Hotel was the headquarters for the Jayhawkers.
JAMES H. LANEThe greatest Jayhawker of all was James Henry Lane (1814-1866)...He commanded forces in numerous military actions against proslavery units...Lane was a man of boundless energy, great tenacity of purpose, and personal magnetism, and he possessed oratorical powers of a high order." |
...a jayhawker could be a hero or a villain, depending on individual circumstances or one’s opinion on the issue of slavery in Kansas Territory. By the time the war ended, however, the term “jayhawkers” became synonymous with Union troops led by abolitionists from Kansas…”
tony O'bryan, University of Missouri–Kansas City, Civil war on the western boarder
Lawrence became the Jayhawkers' base of operations, making it a central part of a series of violent conflicts with Missourians called Bleeding Kansas.