Wakarusa War

Shannon, Wilson

By Matthew E. Stanley, Albany State University

Wilson Shannon was an attorney, the 14th and 16th governor of Ohio, United States minister to Mexico, U.S. congressman, and the second territorial governor of Kansas. He was a leading proslavery figure in early Kansas politics and, despite a short 9.5-month tenure, its longest continuously-serving territorial governor. Despite these successes, the disastrous violence of "Bleeding Kansas" began during his term as territorial governor.

Wakarusa War

By Tony R. Mullis, U. S. Army Command and General Staff College

With a minimal level of actual violence, the Wakarusa War was not a war by traditional definitions - or even a battle. But it did threaten the outbreak of violence and reflect the growing political tensions that would lead to Kansas Territory being known as "Bleeding Kansas."

Lane, James Henry

By Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati

James Henry Lane, a U.S. congressman, senator, and federal general, was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the son of a lawyer and U.S. congressman.

Robinson, Charles

By Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati

Charles Robinson was raised by abolitionist parents, attended Amherst College, and then studied and practiced medicine. Later, Robinson was appointed a Kansas agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, became the extra-legal Free-State governor of Kansas Territory, and eventually the official governor of the state of Kansas in 1861.

Wakarusa War

Wed, 11/21/1855 to Sat, 12/08/1855

A skirmish breaks out in the Wakarusa River Valley near Lawrence, Kansas, following the murder of Charles Dow, a Free-State settler who is killed by the proslavery Franklin Coleman.