Pottawatomie massacre
| Pottawatomie Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of Bleeding Kansas | |
| Location | Franklin County, Kansas |
| Coordinates | 38°26′14″N 95°6′32″W / 38.43722°N 95.10889°W |
| Date | May 23–24, 1856 |
| Target | Pro-slavery settlers |
Attack type | Mass homicide by slashing and shooting, kidnapping, child abduction |
| Deaths | 5 |
| Victims | Five killed, one child kidnapped |
| Perpetrators | John Brown Pottawatomie Rifles |
The Pottawatomie massacre occurred on the night of May 24–25, 1856, in the Kansas Territory, United States. In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces on May 21, and the telegraphed news of the severe attack on Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, John Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers—some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles—responded violently. Just north of Pottawatomie Creek, in Franklin County, they abducted and killed five pro-slavery settlers. One teenage son of one of the settlers was also abducted by Brown and his fellow perpetrators, but was ultimately spared.
This soon became the most famous of the many violent episodes of the "Bleeding Kansas" period, during which a state-level civil war in the Kansas Territory was described as a "tragic prelude" to the American Civil War which soon followed. "Bleeding Kansas" involved conflicts between pro- and anti-slavery settlers over whether the Kansas Territory would enter the Union as a slave state or a free state. It has also been described as John Brown's most questionable and controversial act, both to his friends and his enemies. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass described the massacre by John Brown's band as "a terrible remedy for a terrible malady.": 371