“Bleeding Kansas” , the open war between anti- and pro- slavery groups started when Pro-slavery forces moved into Kansas and attempted to steal the vote to make Kansas a slave state.
It marked a turning point because Abolitionists who were the victims of slaver violence and terrorism began to fight back resulting in virtual Civil Wars along the Kansas Missouri border.
Substitute pro-slavery for today’s Republicans – and see if this doesn’t sound familiar –
Through the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Congress kept a tenuous balance of political power between North and South. In May 1854, the Kansas–Nebraska Act, created from unorganized Indian lands and territories of Kansas and Nebraska, permitted residency by U.S. citizens, who were to determine their state’s slavery status and seek admission to the Union. Immigrants supporting both sides of the question arrived in Kansas to establish residency and gain the right to vote. However, Kansas Territory officials were appointed (1854) by the pro-slavery administration of PresidentFranklin Pierce (in office 1853–1857), and thousands of non-resident pro-slavery Missourians entered Kansas with the goal of winning elections. They captured territorial elections, sometimes by fraud and intimidation. In response, Northern abolitionist elements flooded Kansas with “free-soilers.” Anti-slavery Kansas residents wrote the first Kansas Constitution (1855) and elected the Free State legislature in Topeka; this stood in opposition to the pro-slavery government in Lecompton. The two Territorial governments increased as well as symbolized the strife of Bleeding Kansas…
It was rumored in the South that thousands of Northerners were arriving in Kansas. Believing these rumors, in November 1854, thousands of armed pro-slavery men known as “Border Ruffians” or “southern yankees”, mostly from Missouri, poured into the Kansas Territory and swayed the vote in the election for a non-voting delegate to Congress in favor of pro-slavery candidate John Whitfield.[4] The following year a Congressional committee investigating the election reported that 1729 fraudulent votes were cast compared to 1114 legal votes. In one location only 20 of the 604 voters were residents of the Kansas Territory. In another 35 were residents and 226 non-residents.
Not much different from the situation America is in today.
John Brown, who had led anti-slavery forces in Kansas led a raid against the Harper’s Ferry West Virginia Armory in 1859. While the raid failed, and John Brown was executed…It established that Abolitionists would no longer tolerate slaver abuses and crimes, and would strike back.
In America today there are several hate attacks by Trump’s supporters against minorities, LBGT people, immigrants, and progressives. Peaceful protests are increasingly met with violence.
From the headlines as of the last two weeks –
- ‘Not racist’ member of ‘White Privilege Club’ tries to run over Trumpcare protesters with motorcycle
- White St. Louis cop shot black off-duty officer — then claimed it was a ‘friendly fire’ incident
- An unarmed black police officer shot in his front yard after identifying himself as a policeman by a white officer.
- Trump administration cuts funding to group fighting neo-Nazis
- The Philando Castile jury was stacked with pro-gun, pro-cop, middle-aged white people
- Texas man charged with hate crime for burning mosque
- TEXAS MADE ATTACKING COPS A HATE CRIME; THESE STATES COULD BE NEXT
- Man charged with hate crime in phone threat to Muslim-American …
- Vandalism At Naperville Deli Leads To Hate Crime Investigation
- Amnesty calls for NI laws to be bolstered as hate crimes soar
- Central NY hate crime assault came after men were asked to get off …
- Kansas man charged with hate crime in killing of Indian
- Man charged with 2 Bellevue hate crimes
- Fulton Mayor: Hate crime suspects previously made a threat on my …
A good summary of the attacks by Trump supporters and right wing haters is here.
This just in…
Ray Tensing trial: Jury deadlocks, mistrial declared in Ohio cop’s murder retrial
This list doesn’t include those not charged, or those attacks on whites by alt-right and neo-nazi Trump white wingers. Right wing sites continually use language encouraging violence against the left.
The rise of the Second KKK in the US only abated when the victims began to shoot back,
Was the shooting of Republican Scalese our “John Brown” moment?
I hope so.
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