Where the Civil War began: Kansas! [Part 1 of 3]

If you like history, the Globe’s columnist, Bob Ford, will be speaking in downtown Branson at the Branson Centennial Museum on September 16 at noon. History with humor: come one and all!

“It’s almost like our state denies what happened here,” complains Paul Bahnmaier, President of the Territorial Capital Museum in LeCompton, Kansas.

“We were visiting Fort Sumter last summer, and the park ranger kept saying the Civil War started here in South Carolina.” After our group moved off, I was nice: “You realize the war didn’t start here, it started in Kansas!” “We know that,” he replied with a straight face, "but if I tell them that they wouldn’t come back!”

Revolutionary and Civil War tourism in the South and East are multi-billion-dollar industries, “We should take advantage of our unique story,” Paul states. “It’s a no brainer!”

With the surprise acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 doubling the size of the United States, territorial expansion was imminent. At the time individual states’ rights were strong with an added declaration of national civil rights stemming from the Revolution, but slavery and the traditional way of life in the South was an institution.

The British Empire outlawed slavery in their colonies in 1833, except for India. Sorry India, the indentured or “coolies,” were transported throughout the realm, finally ending the inhuman practice in 1843.

France on the other hand, had an on again, off again relationship with slavery, depending on who was in power—abolishing the evil after their revolution only to reinstate colonial slavery under Napoleon in 1802, finally vanquishing the scourge in 1848.

It was the United States’ turn to, “do the right thing,” but slavery was economically needed and engrained in the South. Most Northerners tolerated because along with the Europeans they liked cotton, too, but slowly and steadily sentiments were changing.

Now came the question of what to do in the new territories with the slavery question. Many in the North thought this was where they could start to take a stand. Keep slavery in the states where it exists now, but don’t allow it to expand in the country's new lands.

Politics was a brutal business in the mid-1800s. People held resolute beliefs—political compromises were tough to come by.

Senator Stephan A. Douglas from Illinois thought he had one on how to deal with the contentious question of expanding slavery into the new territories. His 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act called on the citizens of the territory to vote on the issue, popular sovereignty.

With a new territory, land surveys creating base points needed to be established. Using astrological measurements in 1855, the focal point in which all surveying coordinates for Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, most of Colorado and the Dakotas can be found, just north of White Cloud, Kansas on 7 highway.

There was a metal obelisk in the bluffs where Kansas/Nebraska meets that is now a stake in the ground that delineates the baseline for millions of square miles. Take a drive; the post is marked on the National Register of Historic Places.

Back to the players in 1850 Kansas.

Since it had been determined to leave the question of slavery up to the popular vote, the invasion commenced.

National politicians were at each other's throats over this controversy. The expansion of the slavery issue defined the day, split party alliances, families, and soon – violently - the country.

Abolitionists moved into Kansas with a resolve to end the sin. Led by brazen John Brown, soon he and his sons would take the question to another savage level, capturing national attention. Slavery was a moral abomination to them, wanting the freed-slaves to assimilate and live as they wished; it’s what the Lord commanded.

Many “Free-Staters,” had already settled in Kansas, professing an urgent need to end slavery but wanted freed Negroes to vacate, creating an all-white state. Jim Lane and his marauding cutthroats or Jayhawks raised the bar of violence and destruction against Missouri towns and pro-slavers to new levels of disgust.

Pro-Slavers and Bushwackers answered, knowing it was the question of slavery itself and their traditions that northern politicians in Washington wanted to end. Their ruthless retaliations and barbarian acts shocked the nation.

The Union Army at Ft. Leavenworth was ordered to keep the peace, no problem, right, as all these ardent Americans in Kansas voted, argued and fought each other for control.

My grandfather Albert L. Bartlett was born in 1852, not my great or great great—my grandfather. He fathered my mother at 68—runs in the family. Living in Big Springs, Kansas, his father Josiah Bartlett was elected on the Free-State ticket in 1861 to serve in the State of Kansas First Legislature.

Albert’s mother Hannah, made him a little Union uniform he wore accompanying his father in 1861 to the first day the session met. Seeing the diminutive boy, the crowd enthusiastically shouldered him, thrusting 9-year-old Al onto the podium where he became the first pageboy for the state of Kansas.

People with common beliefs and religious groups settle together for protection. Separate enclaves know each other’s allegiance. The decade was violent, suspicions were high of any approaching stranger, and you knew everyone was pack’en!

Next week, let’s put these factions and individuals into motion, having to deal with one another in tumultuous times where passions and commitments run deep.

One side wants to end a biblical injustice that has lasted for millennia as the other feels their freedom and right to self-determination were at stake.

Each side thinks God is with them. All hell is about to break loose. Welcome to Kansas.

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You can find more of Bob’s work on his website bobfordshistory.com and videos on YouTube, TikTok and Clapper. Bob can be reached at robertmford@aol.com