Pottawatomie Massacre

Saturday, May 24, 1856 to Sunday, May 25, 1856

Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. Courtesy of Kansas Historical Society.

In retribution for the Sacking of Lawrence three days earlier, abolitionist John Brown, four of his sons, and other Free-Staters murder five proslavery settlers near Pottawatomie Creek in southeast Franklin County. This is one of the earliest acts of violence in the Bleeding Kansas era.