History of slavery in Kansas

While cotton never had a significant role in Kansas' early agrarian economy, a tiny portion of the population did engage in the ownership of slaves and plantations in the fertile grounds lining the Missouri River during the mid-19th century.

The presence of slaveowners in Kansas, particularly slaveowners who had migrated from neighboring slave state Missouri in order to guarantee the future state's entry into the Union as a slave state, served as a motivating factor for Northern abolitionist movements to move into the Kansas territory in order to prevent such efforts from succeeding. This resulted in the armed conflict known as Bleeding Kansas.

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