"Bleeding Kansas"

1. Northerners began to pour into Kansas, and Southerners were outraged, since they had supported the Compromise of 1850 under the impression that Kansas would become a slave state.
2. Thus, on election day in 1855, hordes of Southerners  from Missouri flooded the polls and elected Kansas to be a slave state; free-soilers were unable to stomach this and set up their own government in Topeka.
   • Thus, confused Kansans had to chose between two governments: one illegal (free government in Topeka) and the other fraudulent (slavery government in Shawnee).
3. In 1856, a group of pro-slavery raiders shot up and burnt part of Lawrence, thus starting violence.

the northerners were now out to ablolitionize both kansas and nebraska to stop the souths expansion of slavery