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Border ruffians were proslavery raiders who crossed into the Kansas Territory from Missouri during the mid-19th century to help ensure the territory entered the United States as a slave state. Their activities formed a major part of a series of violent civil confrontations known as "Bleeding Kansas", which peaked from 1854 to 1858. Crimes committed by border ruffians included electoral fraud, intimidation, assault, property damage and murder; many border ruffians took pride in their reputation as criminals. After the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, many border ruffians fought on the side of the Confederate States of America as irregular .
Among the first to use the term border ruffian in connection with the slavery issue in Kansas was the Herald of Freedom, a newspaper published in Lawrence, Kansas. On October 8, 1857, it reported the following:
Armed with revolvers and Bowie knives, border ruffians forcefully interfered in the Kansas row over slavery.Cecil-Fronsman, Bill. 'Death to All Yankees and Traitors in Kansas': The Squatter Sovereign and the Defense of Slavery in Kansas, Kansas History 16 (Spring 1993): 22–33. A correspondent for the The Times while visiting Kansas in 1856 reported many occurrences of the so-called bowie-knife voting in Kansas when voters were heckled and harassed by border ruffians. In response, the New England Emigrant Aid Company shipped to the Kansas Territory, in crates said to have been labeled "Bibles".
At that time, many Kansas settlers opposed slavery. However, slavery advocates were determined to have their way regardless. When elections were held, bands of armed border ruffians seized polling places, prevented Free-State men from voting, and cast votes illegally, falsely stating they were Kansas residents.
Border ruffians operated from Missouri. It was said that they voted and shot in Kansas, but slept in Missouri. They not only interfered in territorial elections, but also committed outrages on Free-State settlers and destroyed their property. This violence gave the origin of the phrase "Bleeding Kansas". However, political killings and violence were exercised by both warring sides.Watts, Dale. How Bloody was Bleeding Kansas? Political Killings in Kansas Territory, 1854–1861, Kansas History, Vol. 18, Summer 1995, pp. 116–129Welch, G. Murlin. Border Warfare in Southeastern Kansas, 1856–1859. Pleasanton, Kans.: Linn County Publishers, 1977.
The federal government did not interfere to stop the violence. Hence, episodes as the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, in May 1856 became possible. U.S. Senator David Rice Atchison (D-Missouri) personally incited the assembling mob:
Border ruffians contributed to the increasingly violent sectional tensions, culminating in the American Civil War.Monaghan, Jay. Civil War on the Western Border. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1955.
Border ruffians were driven by the rhetoric of politicians such as David Rice Atchison, Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow, John H. Stringfellow, editor of the pro-slavery newspaper Squatter Sovereign (Atchison, Kansas), and Speaker of the House in the First Kansas Territorial Legislature, the so-called Bogus Legislature. and Rev. Thomas Johnson, a Methodist preacher. Pious Preacher or Radical Hypocrite? The Reverend Thomas Johnson , The New Santa Fe Trailer Samuel J. Jones, and Daniel Woodson, a proslavery newspaper editor.Matthew E. Stanley. Woodson, Daniel . Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1855–1865Etcheson, Nicole. Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004, p. 116 In particular, Atchison called Northerners "negro thieves" and "abolitionist tyrants". He encouraged Missourians to defend their institution "with the bayonet and with blood" and, if necessary, "to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district".
Few of the ordinary border ruffians actually owned slaves because most were too poor. Their motivation was hatred of Yankees and abolitionists, and fear of free Blacks living nearby. Kansas slavery was small-scale and operated mainly at the household level.Cory, Charles Easterbrook. Slavery in Kansas, Kansas Historical Collection 7 (1901–1902): 229–242. Most of the Kansans, according to historian David M. Potter, were concerned primarily about land titles. He pointed out that, "the great anomaly of 'Bleeding Kansas' is that the slavery issue reached a condition of intolerable tension and violence ... in an area where a majority of the inhabitants apparently did not care very much one way or the other about slavery."
Frank W. Blackmar's encyclopedia of Kansas history summarizes how the rank-and-file among border ruffians took pride in both how they were called and what they were doing:
The presence of violent bands of both Kansan and Missourian combatants made it difficult for settlers on the Kansas–Missouri border to remain neutral.Newlon, Jack, Rob Spooner, and Alicia Spooner. Bleeding Kansas: Mid 1850s – Precursor to the Civil War , in U-S-History.com. Online Highways, 2021
The first territorial census, taken in January–February 1855, counted 8601 people; 2905 were deemed eligible to vote; there were 192 enslaved in the Territory.Cutler, William G. History of the State of Kansas: Containing a Full Account of Its Growth from an Uninhabited Territory to a Wealthy and Important State; of Its Early Settlements; Its Rapid Increase in Population; and the Marvelous Development of Its Great Natural Resources . Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1883. Kansapedia: Kansas Territory , Kansas Historical Society
After the Kansas–Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed Kansans to vote on slavery, the opponents from both sides of the slavery debate started to recruit settlers to increase support of their causes.
On November 29, 1854, border ruffians elected a pro-slavery territorial representative to Congress, John W. Whitfield. It was determined after a Congressional investigation that 60% of the votes were illegal. "Bleeding Kansas" , The E Pluribus Unum Project: America in the 1770s, 1850s, and 1920s, Assumption University
On March 30, 1855, border ruffians elected a pro-slavery Territorial Legislature, which introduced harsh penalties for speaking against slavery. It was called the Bogus Legislature by Free-Staters due to the fact that border ruffians arrived en masse and there were twice as many votes cast than there were eligible voters in the Territory. Failure to ensure fair elections led to establishment of two territorial governments in Kansas, one pro-slavery and another Free State, each claiming to be the only legitimate government of the entire Territory.
Despite all border ruffians' attempts to push anti-slavery settlers out of the Territory, far more Free-State immigrants moved to Kansas than pro-slavery. In 1857, the pro-slavery faction in Kansas proposed the Lecompton Constitution for the future state of Kansas. It tried to get the Lecompton Constitution adopted with additional fraud and violence, but by then there were too many Free-Staters there and the U.S. Congress refused to confirm it.
Border ruffians also engaged in general violence against Free-State settlements. They burned farms and sometimes murdered Free-State men. Most notoriously, border ruffians twice attacked Lawrence, the Free-State capital of the Kansas Territory. On December 1, 1855, a small army of border ruffians laid siege to Lawrence, but were driven off. This became the nearly bloodless climax to the "Wakarusa War".
On May 21, 1856, an even larger force of border ruffians and pro-slavery Kansans captured Lawrence, which they sacked.
Free-State settlers struck back. Anti-slavery Kansan irregulars, led by Charles R. Jennison, James Montgomery, and James H. Lane, among others, and known as , attacked proslavery settlers and suspected border ruffian sympathizers.Neely, Jeremy. The Border Between Them: Violence and Reconciliation on the Kansas-Missouri Line. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007. Most notoriously, abolitionist John Brown killed five proslavery men at Pottawatomie.Oates, Stephen B. To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown. New York: Harper and Row, 1970. In revenge, a band of border ruffians, led by John W. Reid, sacked the village of Osawatomie, Kansas after the Battle of Osawatomie.Rein, Christopher. Battle of Osawatomie , Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854–1865.
On July 9, 1856, the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee and the New England Emigrant Aid Company initiated the establishment of the Kansas National Aid Committee headquartered in Chicago. Thaddeus Hyatt, head of the national committee, began collecting money, arms, provisions, clothing, and agricultural supplies to aid the Free-State cause in Kansas. The goal was to transport five thousand settlers to Kansas Territory giving them a year's worth of supplies. National Kansas Relief Committee, minutes , Kansas Historical Society
A distribution Supply depot was set up at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where immigrants were furnished not only with horses and wagons and other supplies, but also with arms; they were organized into companies and drilled. The National Kansas Committee spent in 1856–1857 around on the Free State cause.Hinton, Richard Josiah. John Brown And His Men: With Some Account of the Roads They Traveled to Reach Harper's Ferry . New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1894, p. 122.
Many of the Union troops fighting bushwackers were former who held deep grudges against border ruffians. Charles R. Jennison recruited the 7th Kansas Cavalry Regiment, which became known as the Jennison's Jayhawkers. In the fall and winter of 1861 and 1862, Jennison's Jayhawkers became infamous for looting and destroying the property of Missourians.O’Bryan, Tony. "Jayhawkers," Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854–1865
Some of the jayhawkers joined a paramilitary group called the Red Legs. Wearing red gaiters and numbered around 100, Red Legs served as scouts during the punitive expedition of the Union troops in Missouri. Jayhawkers and Red Legs pillaged and burned multiple towns in 1861–1863 in Missouri.O'Bryan, Tony. "Red Legs," Civil War on the Western Border, The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854–1865Cheatham, Gary L. 'Desperate Characters': The Development and Impact of the Confederate Guerrilla Conflict in Kansas, Kansas History 14 (Autumn 1991): 144–161.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived The destruction of Osceola, Missouri, is depicted in the movie The Outlaw Josey Wales.
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