Growing Pains-Kansas in Chaos

Montgomery and his raiders attack Fort Scott

Keith Rocco, artist.  NPS owns rights.

Slavery divided the nation during its turbulent adolescent years. Conflict arose over whether to allow slavery in the new western territories. Under the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), Congress created Kansas and Nebraska Territories, opening these lands for settlement. It declared that the residents of these territories could decide by popular vote whether their state would be free or slave. In Kansas, people on both sides of this controversial issue flooded in, trying to influence the vote in their favor.

Three distinct political groups occupied Kansas-pro slavery advocates, free-staters, and abolitionists. Proslavery advocates, as the name implies, supported slavery, regardless of whether they personally owned slaves. Abolitionists wanted to rid the nation of "the peculiar institution". Free staters didn't particularly care about slavery where it already existed, but were opposed to its extension westward. Conflict between these opposing factions soon turned violent. As a result, this era became forever known as "Bleeding Kansas," an era when violence, destruction, and psychological warfare prevailed in the region.

Fort Scott and the surrounding area were not immune from the turmoil. Sold at auction in 1855, the buildings of the fort became the new town. The townspeople were primarily proslavery, while free-staters and abolitionists dominated the surrounding countryside. This division of opposing factions was illustrated on the grounds of the "old fort" by the existence of two hotels. One, a former officers' quarters, became the Fort Scott Hotel, nicknamed the "Free State" Hotel, due to the political leanings of many of its guests. Directly across the square, an infantry barracks was now the Western Hotel, a headquarters for proslavery men.

By 1858, radical elements from both factions converged on the area. James Montgomery, an ardent abolitionist, became a leader of free state forces that invaded Fort Scott, a haven for Border Ruffians (extreme proslavery men). During one raid, Montgomery tried to burn the Western Hotel; another raid took the life of John Little, a former deputy marshal.

During this era, soldiers returned periodically to Fort Scott to restore law and order, staying each time until violence abated, only to have conflict resume on their departure. By the time the strife waned in 1859, nearly 60 people had died and hundreds terrorized throughout Kansas Territory in the struggle over slavery. Anti-slavery forces finally prevailed. Kansas entered the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861 but by then, the fighting and violence once contained to Kansas threatened to engulf the entire country.

Duration:

4 minutes, 18 seconds

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