Kansas Committee, National

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KANSAS COMMITTEE, NATIONAL

KANSAS COMMITTEE, NATIONAL. After the sack of Lawrence on 21 May 1856, during civil war in Kansas Territory over the slavery issue, emigrant aid societies and Kansas relief committees sprang up throughout the free states. On 9 July 1856, representatives of these groups, and of older organizations like the New England Emigrant Aid Company and the New York State Kansas Committee, met at Buffalo, New York, and formed the National Kansas Committee with headquarters in Chicago. It raised and spent some $200,000, sending arms, supplies, and recruits to the Free-State (antislavery) Party in Kansas. In 1861 Congress incorporated Kansas into the Union as a free state.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Potter, David M. The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861. New York: Harper and Row, 1976.

Rawley, James A. Race and Politics: "Bleeding Kansas" and the Coming of the Civil War. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1969.

Samuel A.Johnson/a. g.

See alsoEmigrant Aid Movement ; Kansas-Nebraska Act ; Lawrence, Sack of .

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