Leavenworth, Kansas

Woodson, Daniel

By Matthew E. Stanley, University of Cincinnati

Daniel Woodson was a proslavery newspaper editor, secretary of Kansas Territory, and a five-time acting territorial governor of Kansas during the late 1850s.

Leavenworth Constitution

By Marc Reyes, University of Connecticut

With language echoing the Declaration of Independence, the future state of Kansas considered the unprecedented measure of extending equal rights of citizenship to black males. Serving as an early example of Brandeisian thinking, wherein states, or in this case a territory, function as “laboratories of democracy,” the delegates who gathered in Leavenworth, Kansas, placed the enfranchisement of black males up for consideration a full decade before the federal government enacted the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Anthony, Daniel Read

By Claire Wolnisty, Angelo State University

Daniel R. Anthony was a man of strong abolitionist convictions who aggressively voiced his opinions as the postmaster, mayor, and dominant newspaper publisher in Leavenworth, Kansas. While Anthony’s contentious and radical nature isolated some of his contemporaries, he helped shape the territory of Kansas into a free state.

Leavenworth, Kansas

Founded to the south of Fort Leavenworth by settlers from Weston, Missouri, the town of Leavenworth was the first city to be incorporated in Kansas.

Fort Leavenworth

Fort Leavenworth was originally established in 1827 to provide protection along the Santa Fe Trail.

Proslavery Law and Order Party Formed

Wed, 10/03/1855

Proslavery activists meet at Leavenworth, Kansas to form the Law & Order Party, which cites criminal violence as justification to target, attack, and arrest persons associated with the Free-State cause.

First Election in Kansas Territory

Wed, 11/29/1854

The first election is held in Kansas Territory, and Democrat John W. Whitfield, a proslavery settler and veteran of the Mexican-American War, is selected as the territory's first delegate to Congress.