John Brown in Kansas
John Brown, a devote Bible-quoting Calvinist
who believed he had a personal duty to overthrow slavery, announced
that the time had come "to fight fire with fire" and
"strike terror in the hearts of proslavery men. The next
day, in reprisal for the "sack of Lawrence" and the
assault on Sumner, Brown and six companions dragged five proslavery
men and boys from their beds at Pottawatomie Creek, split open
their skulls with a sword and cut off their hands.
A
war of revenge erupted in Kansas. Columns of proslavery Southerners
ransacked free farms and took "horses and cattle and everything
else they can lay hold of" while they searched for Brown
and the other "Pottawatomie killers." Armed bands looted
enemy stores and farms. At Osawatomie, proslavery forces attacked
John Brown's headquarters, leaving a dozen men dead. John Brown's
men killed four Missourians, and proslavery forces retaliated
by blockading the free towns of Topeka and Lawrence. Before it
was over, guerilla warfare in eastern Kansas left 200 dead.
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Kansas" and "Bleeding Sumner" in our Online
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