So more Americans will know what “Bleeding Kansas” was

OK, so the name couldn’t be any clunkier — the “Bleeding Kansas and the Enduring Struggle for Freedom National Heritage Area.” But the U.S. Senate’s approval of the designation of 26 Kansas counties for their role in that regional struggle leading up to the Civil War brings proponents closer to their worthy goal of preserving and sharing this history through signs, brochures, exhibits, walking trails and the like. This is a story that all Americans need to know and learn from.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

4 Comments

  1. J M Walker
    Posted July 30, 2005 at 9:17 am | Permalink

    While Kansas is listed as a “red” state (Who’s the moron that came up with that nonsense anyway?), it has a proud heritage in being a free state, when most of it’s border states were slave states. The borders of Kansas and Missouri had some intense battles that had a lot to do with deciding the outcome of the civil war. That heritage is something all Kansans can be proud of. It’s something that needs to be remembered.

  2. J. Scheidel
    Posted July 30, 2005 at 3:56 pm | Permalink

    “Bleeding Kansas” is one of the most neglected periods in American History. That’s why we made our documentary film “Touched By Fire Bleeding Kansas”. As Kansans, we wanted to tell the story of one of the defining moments in our American experience. If you missed the broadcast premire on KPTS channel 8, more information about our film is available at http://www.lonchimney.com

  3. CF
    Posted July 30, 2005 at 9:20 pm | Permalink

    J. Scheidel,

    I missed the premiere, but I laud you for the effort to tell this story.

    I’m not from Kansas, and I’m as liberal a Democrat as it’s possible to be, but I’m immensely proud to be a resident of the free state of Kansas. This place goes in being central to our national conversation, and in these polarized times the border wars of the 1850’s and 1860’s are a lesson NONE of us can afford to forget.

    Thank all of you at Lone Chimney, and God bless.

  4. Mister Twister
    Posted July 31, 2005 at 11:13 am | Permalink

    Funny thing is, had the people alive in Kansas today been alive in 1850, would we have still sided with the Free-staters?

    History books have sometimes been criticised for romanticising the past and making our leaders seem heroic by today’s standards.

    In this case, it’s probably true. Then Kansans died to give slaves (considered non-humans by many) basic rights. Now we go out of our way to deny homosexuals basic civil rights like marriage for instance.