Free-Stater (Kansas)

Free-Staters were settlers in Kansas Territory during Bleeding Kansas in the 1850s who opposed the extension of slavery to Kansas. The name came from the term "free state," a U.S. state that banned slavery.[1]

Some Free-Staters were abolitionists from New England. Other Free-Staters were abolitionists who came to Kansas Territory from Ohio, Iowa, and other Midwestern states. However, most Free-Staters, regardless of where they were from, did not claim at first to be abolitionists.[2] Instead, the official Free-Stater line supported the idea of excluding all black people from the state of Kansas. While they had no slaves themselves, most were prejudiced against blacks and believed the popular idea that they were inferior.[3] Most of the settlers wanted free soil for whites only.[3]

Pro-slavery Southerners in Kansas Territory falsely said all Free-Staters were abolitionists to motivate the South's opposition. However, Eli Thayer and other New England Company leaders denied that they were seeking to abolish slavery. Also, the failed Topeka Constitution, drafted by the Free-Staters in 1855, would have excluded all blacks from settling in Kansas regardless of whether they were slaves or free.[4] In contrast, abolitionists wanted equal rights for all blacks and to end discrimination against them.[5]

As time passed and the violence in Bleeding Kansas increased, abolitionists became associated with the Free-Stateers. In 1858, the Free-Staters proposed a second constitution, the Leavenworth Constitution, which would have banned slavery and also given the right to vote to black men. This constitution also failed because of unresolved conflict between the two sides. Kansas became a state in 1861 after the fourth and final Wyandotte Constitution was made.

Holton, Kansas was named after the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Free-Stater Edward Dwight Holton.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "free state". The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  2. ↑ "Fighting Against Slavery in Kansas Territory" (PDF). Read Kansas!. Kansas State Historical Society. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Bleeding Kansas". Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  4. ↑ "Topeka Constitution". The Missouri-Kansas Conflict 1854–1865. Civil War on the Western Border. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  5. ↑ "Abolitionist Movement". History. A&E Television Networks, LLC. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  6. ↑ "Honorable E. D. Holton: He Visits our Young City Amid the Firing of Cannon, The Ringing of Bells, Playing of Bands, And Rejoicing Generally". Holton Recorder. Holton, Kansas. December 11, 1879. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
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