Introduction

When Congress organized Kansas Territory in 1854, it allowed settlers to vote on whether to have slavery. The author of the legislation, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, believed he was expanding democracy. But many settlers from the North argued that the elections were not conducted fairly and refused to accept the results. Proslavery settlers insisted that refusing to abide by the election results was illegal, even treasonous. Americans, then and now, believed that the United States has the best form of government—government by the people—on earth. Kansas settlers were supposed to use self-government to decide one of the most important issues of their era and of American history, slavery. But they failed and resorted to violence instead. Why? What does Bleeding Kansas tell us about the strengths and weaknesses of self-government? What can we learn from Bleeding Kansas about how an issue such as slavery can or cannot be resolved by political means? What can Bleeding Kansas tell us about why the United States came to fight a bloody Civil War over slavery?