Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas was a violent conflict in the mid-1850s over the issue of slavery in the Kansas Territory. Following the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed settlers to decide if they wanted slavery, pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups flooded into Kansas to influence the vote. Clashes erupted between these factions, resulting in significant violence and loss of life. The turmoil highlighted the deep divisions in the United States over slavery, foreshadowing the larger national conflict that would culminate in the Civil War. It exemplified the struggle over whether new states would permit or prohibit slavery.