Lawrence, Sacking of
1856 CE
The Sacking of Lawrence occurred on May 21, 1856, when pro-slavery activists, led by Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones, attack and ransack Lawrence, Kansas, a town which had been founded by anti-slavery settlers from Massachusetts who are hoping to make Kansas a "free state".
The incident fuels the irregular conflict in Kansas Territory that later becomes known as "Bleeding Kansas".
The human cost of the attack is low: only one person—a member of the pro-slavery gang—is killed, and his death is accidental.
However, Jones and his men halt production of the free-state newspapers the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom (with the former ceasing publication altogether and the latter taking months to once again start up).
The pro-slavery men also destroy the Free State Hotel and Charles L. Robinson's house.
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Many abolitionists regard the immediate cause of the Sacking of Lawrence on May 21, 1856, as the non-fatal shooting of Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones, who was attempting to arrest free-state settlers in Lawrence.
Lawrence residents had driven Jones out of town after they shot him, and on May 11, Federal Marshal Israel B. Donaldson proclaimed that the assassination attempt had interfered with the execution of warrants against the extralegal Free-State legislature, which was set up in opposition to the official pro-slavery territorial government.
Donaldson's proclamation and the presentment by the first district of Kansas's grand jury that "the building known as the 'Free State' Hotel' [sic] in Lawrence had been constructed with a view to military occupation and defence [sic], regularly parapetted and port holed, for the use of cannon and small arms, thereby endangering the public safety, and encouraging rebellion and sedition in this country" lead to Sheriff Jones and Marshal Donaldson assembling an army of roughly eight hundred southern settlers.
This group plans to enter Lawrence, disarm the citizens, destroy the anti-slavery newspaper presses, and level the Free State Hotel.
A number of men from Texas and South Carolina join Donaldson and Jones's posse.
On May 21, 1856, while this group is camping a few miles west of Lawrence, David Rice Atchison gives a speech to these men, promising that they will be "well paid" for their service and that they are working for "the present administration".
They are there for "the entire South" and the goal is to spread slavery, and stop anti-slavery newspapers in Lawrence.
Atchison promises that he will lead them into this battle, and makes them all cheer as a promise to draw blood.
He also mentions that the flag he rides under is the red flag of the South—red for the color of blood they will spill.
Elsewhere, Atchison had promised to see Kansas in Hell before he let it become a free state.
Lawrence residents had driven Jones out of town after they shot him, and on May 11, Federal Marshal Israel B. Donaldson proclaimed that the assassination attempt had interfered with the execution of warrants against the extralegal Free-State legislature, which was set up in opposition to the official pro-slavery territorial government.
Donaldson's proclamation and the presentment by the first district of Kansas's grand jury that "the building known as the 'Free State' Hotel' [sic] in Lawrence had been constructed with a view to military occupation and defence [sic], regularly parapetted and port holed, for the use of cannon and small arms, thereby endangering the public safety, and encouraging rebellion and sedition in this country" lead to Sheriff Jones and Marshal Donaldson assembling an army of roughly eight hundred southern settlers.
This group plans to enter Lawrence, disarm the citizens, destroy the anti-slavery newspaper presses, and level the Free State Hotel.
A number of men from Texas and South Carolina join Donaldson and Jones's posse.
On May 21, 1856, while this group is camping a few miles west of Lawrence, David Rice Atchison gives a speech to these men, promising that they will be "well paid" for their service and that they are working for "the present administration".
They are there for "the entire South" and the goal is to spread slavery, and stop anti-slavery newspapers in Lawrence.
Atchison promises that he will lead them into this battle, and makes them all cheer as a promise to draw blood.
He also mentions that the flag he rides under is the red flag of the South—red for the color of blood they will spill.
Elsewhere, Atchison had promised to see Kansas in Hell before he let it become a free state.
Jones and Donaldson near the town of Lawrence on May 21, 1856.
A large force is stationed on the high ground at Mount Oread, and a cannon is placed to cover and command the area.
The house of Charles L. Robinson (later to become the first governor of Kansas) is taken over as Jones's headquarters.
Every road to the town and on the opposite side of the river is guarded by Jones's men to prevent the free soilers from fleeing.
A number of flags are flown by Jones's men, such as the state banners of Alabama and South Carolina, a flag with black and white stripes, and flags bearing pro-slavery and/or inflammatory inscriptions (i.e. "Kansas the Outpost", "Southern Rights", and "Supremacy of the White Race").
Shalor Eldridge, the proprietor of the Free State Hotel, soon learns of the oncoming forces, and he journeys out to meet them; he is told by Donaldson that the posse will enter into Lawrence and attack if and only if the citizens try to resist Donaldson and Jones's men.
Donaldson and Eldridge now journey to the hotel, where, according to the New York Times, Eldridge had prepared "an elegant dinner, the best that the fresh and abundant stores in the cellar could afford" (which included "costly wines") so as to placate the marshal and his men.
Eldridge is interviewed by Donaldson while the federal agent and his followers ravenously consume the meal, then leave without paying.
Shortly afterwards, the marshal dismisses his followers, who are immediately deputized by Jones.
Jones now asks to speak to a representative of the town.
Samuel C. Pomeroy (who, along with Charles Robinson, had led the second group of settlers to the Lawrence city site in 1854) agrees to meet with the sheriff and discuss with him the situation at hand.
Jones is clear in what he wants: for the citizens of Lawrence to surrender all of their weapons.
Pomeroy argues that there is not much he can do in this regard, as it is ultimately up to the individual citizens to give up their arms.
However, hoping to encourage Jones to leave the city peacefully, Pomeroy agrees to turn over the city's only artillery piece.
While Jones does seize this cannon, it does not appease the sheriff as Pomeroy had hoped.
It is the "Old Sacramento" cannon that the pro-slavers make use of in their initial attempt to bring down the Free State Hotel.
This weapon had been stored at the Liberty Arsenal until it was seized by pro-slavery forces in 1855. (The cannon will eventually be captured by free-staters later in 1856 during the Second Battle of Franklin.)
While Jones and his men are trying to bring down the hotel, the printing offices of the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom are trashed; their libraries are thrown out the window, the presses are smashed, the type is thrown in the river, and any remaining papers are either thrown into the blowing wind to be carried off or are used by Jones and his men to burn down the Free State Hotel.
When the newspapers are obliterated and the hotel has been brought to the ground, Jones's men loot the half-deserted town.
As they retreat, they burn Robinson's home on Mount Oread for good measure.
One person—a member of Jones's gang—dies during the attack when he is struck in the head by a collapsing bit of the Free State Hotel.
A large force is stationed on the high ground at Mount Oread, and a cannon is placed to cover and command the area.
The house of Charles L. Robinson (later to become the first governor of Kansas) is taken over as Jones's headquarters.
Every road to the town and on the opposite side of the river is guarded by Jones's men to prevent the free soilers from fleeing.
A number of flags are flown by Jones's men, such as the state banners of Alabama and South Carolina, a flag with black and white stripes, and flags bearing pro-slavery and/or inflammatory inscriptions (i.e. "Kansas the Outpost", "Southern Rights", and "Supremacy of the White Race").
Shalor Eldridge, the proprietor of the Free State Hotel, soon learns of the oncoming forces, and he journeys out to meet them; he is told by Donaldson that the posse will enter into Lawrence and attack if and only if the citizens try to resist Donaldson and Jones's men.
Donaldson and Eldridge now journey to the hotel, where, according to the New York Times, Eldridge had prepared "an elegant dinner, the best that the fresh and abundant stores in the cellar could afford" (which included "costly wines") so as to placate the marshal and his men.
Eldridge is interviewed by Donaldson while the federal agent and his followers ravenously consume the meal, then leave without paying.
Shortly afterwards, the marshal dismisses his followers, who are immediately deputized by Jones.
Jones now asks to speak to a representative of the town.
Samuel C. Pomeroy (who, along with Charles Robinson, had led the second group of settlers to the Lawrence city site in 1854) agrees to meet with the sheriff and discuss with him the situation at hand.
Jones is clear in what he wants: for the citizens of Lawrence to surrender all of their weapons.
Pomeroy argues that there is not much he can do in this regard, as it is ultimately up to the individual citizens to give up their arms.
However, hoping to encourage Jones to leave the city peacefully, Pomeroy agrees to turn over the city's only artillery piece.
While Jones does seize this cannon, it does not appease the sheriff as Pomeroy had hoped.
It is the "Old Sacramento" cannon that the pro-slavers make use of in their initial attempt to bring down the Free State Hotel.
This weapon had been stored at the Liberty Arsenal until it was seized by pro-slavery forces in 1855. (The cannon will eventually be captured by free-staters later in 1856 during the Second Battle of Franklin.)
While Jones and his men are trying to bring down the hotel, the printing offices of the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom are trashed; their libraries are thrown out the window, the presses are smashed, the type is thrown in the river, and any remaining papers are either thrown into the blowing wind to be carried off or are used by Jones and his men to burn down the Free State Hotel.
When the newspapers are obliterated and the hotel has been brought to the ground, Jones's men loot the half-deserted town.
As they retreat, they burn Robinson's home on Mount Oread for good measure.
One person—a member of Jones's gang—dies during the attack when he is struck in the head by a collapsing bit of the Free State Hotel.
A group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill five homesteaders in Franklin County, Kansas, in the Pottawatomie massacre of May 24, 1856.
John Brown had been particularly affected by the sacking of Lawrence, in which the Douglas County Sheriff Samuel Jones led a posse that destroyed two abolitionist newspaper offices (the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom), the fortified Free State Hotel, and the house of Charles Robinson (the free-state militia commander-in-chief and leader of the Free State government established in opposition to the pro-slavery Territorial Government).
A Douglas County grand jury had ordered the abatement because the hotel "had been used as a fortress" and an "arsenal" the previous winter and the "seditious" newspapers were indicted because "they had urged the people to resist the enactments passed" by the territorial governor.
The violence against abolitionists is accompanied by celebrations in the pro-slavery press, with writers such as Dr. John H Stringfellow of the Squatter Sovereign proclaiming that pro-slavery forces "are determined to repel this Northern invasion and make Kansas a Slave State; though our rivers should be covered with the blood of their victims and the carcasses of the Abolitionists should be so numerous in the territory as to breed disease and sickness, we will not be deterred from our purpose."
Brown is outraged by both the violence of pro-slavery forces and by what he sees as a weak and cowardly response by the anti-slavery partisans and the Free State settlers, whom he describes as cowards, or worse.
In addition, two days before this massacre, Brown had learned about the caning of abolitionist Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks on the floor of Congress.
In the two years prior to the massacre, there had been eight killings in Kansas Territory attributable to slavery politics, and none in the vicinity of the massacre.
The Brown faction—it remains unclear whether or not John Brown himself was directly involved—kills five in a single night, and the massacre is the match to the powder keg that precipitates the bloodiest period in "Bleeding Kansas" history, a three-month period of retaliatory raids and battles in which twenty-nine people will die.
John Brown had been particularly affected by the sacking of Lawrence, in which the Douglas County Sheriff Samuel Jones led a posse that destroyed two abolitionist newspaper offices (the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom), the fortified Free State Hotel, and the house of Charles Robinson (the free-state militia commander-in-chief and leader of the Free State government established in opposition to the pro-slavery Territorial Government).
A Douglas County grand jury had ordered the abatement because the hotel "had been used as a fortress" and an "arsenal" the previous winter and the "seditious" newspapers were indicted because "they had urged the people to resist the enactments passed" by the territorial governor.
The violence against abolitionists is accompanied by celebrations in the pro-slavery press, with writers such as Dr. John H Stringfellow of the Squatter Sovereign proclaiming that pro-slavery forces "are determined to repel this Northern invasion and make Kansas a Slave State; though our rivers should be covered with the blood of their victims and the carcasses of the Abolitionists should be so numerous in the territory as to breed disease and sickness, we will not be deterred from our purpose."
Brown is outraged by both the violence of pro-slavery forces and by what he sees as a weak and cowardly response by the anti-slavery partisans and the Free State settlers, whom he describes as cowards, or worse.
In addition, two days before this massacre, Brown had learned about the caning of abolitionist Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks on the floor of Congress.
In the two years prior to the massacre, there had been eight killings in Kansas Territory attributable to slavery politics, and none in the vicinity of the massacre.
The Brown faction—it remains unclear whether or not John Brown himself was directly involved—kills five in a single night, and the massacre is the match to the powder keg that precipitates the bloodiest period in "Bleeding Kansas" history, a three-month period of retaliatory raids and battles in which twenty-nine people will die.