Alan E Craven

"The opening of the Kansas Territory to settlement in 1854 created the most violent place in America: “Bleeding Kansas” the newspapers of the day called it. Proslavery Missourians called Border Ruffians attacked settlers who demanded that the Territory enter the Union as a Free State: knifings, the burning of barns and houses, shootings, and guerilla raids became commonplace. Ezra Middleton, a newspaper reporter and arrival from slave-holding...