Parties
- Free-state settlers formed multiple parties upon arrival in Kansas, including Free-Soilers and Free State Men of Kansas
- Within the groups,differing motives and goals--Charles Robinson and James Henry Lane were two key leaders of the Free-soilers with differences of opinion
- Robinson writes on redeeming slaves, “Wouldn’t it be rich to march an army through slave holding states and roll up a black cloud that should spread dismay and terror to the ranks of the oppressors?” (Goodrich 47)
- Lane, however, had less personal and passionate view and instead was interested in economic and financial benefits--Initially indifferent to slavery, Lane saw situation of slavery “just as…the horse…merely a question of dollars and cents…if Kansas had been a good hemp and tobacco state, [I] would have favored slavery” (Goodrich 50)
- Despite motivational differences, anti-slavers able to band together against opponents
- Understandably, proslavery settlers also formed their own parties
- After being angered over what they felt was an antislavery government, National Democratic Party of Kansas took Washington, DC’s appointment of spineless Wilson Shannon as invitation from the capital to take down defiant free-soiler Northerners
- J.W.B. Kelley, free-soiler living in Atchison surrounded by proslavery group, was “knocked down, and pounded with stones about the head and face until he was rendered entirely blind, and his head cut up in the most shocking manner!” (Goodrich 52) by Grafton Thomason after Kelley continuously made pointed remarks against slavery and criticized Thomason’s failure to respectfully bury deceased slave
- Evidentially, tensions ran high when opposition entered the turf of the opposite party