Shared Stories of the Civil War Scripts

Events Before the Civil War

1. Compromise to Conflict 
Missouri Compromise & Kansas-Nebraska Act

As the United States expanded into the West, the question of slavery remained unresolved.

2. Guerilla Warfare: Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers

The war on the Kansas-Missouri border created guerilla warriors on both sides: the Kansas Jayhawkers and the Missouri Bushwhackers.

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3. John Brown: Martyr or Madman

On the night of May 24, 1856, a group of armed men led by John Brown appeared among the settlements along the Pottawatomie Creek in eastern Kansas. Five men - all proslavery settlers - were summoned from their cabins and killed.

4. John Doy's Escape 

Beginning with his capture by pro-slavery forces in January 1859, and ending with his escape from prison six months later, John Doy's story illustrates the escalating tensions along the Kansas-Missouri border.

5. Settling the Kansas Territory 

Opened for settlement in 1854, the area along the Missouri border attracted many settlers, some with political motivations and others motivated by opportunity.

6. The Underground Railroad

Nowhere in the United States was
the Underground Railroad more
dangerous than in western Missouri 
and eastern Kansas in the late 1850s. 

7. Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, 1859

In July 1859, delegates from the Kansas Territory gathered for a fourth and final constitutional convention. Although the Wyandotte Constitution prohibited slavery, it limited the rights of Black men and all women.

Events During the Civil War

8. The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War

As the Border War raged between Kansas and Missouri, and as tensions mounted between North and South, the Cherokee Nation faced a decision: In the event of Civil War, would they side with the United States government or the Confederacy?

9. Pledging Allegiance

North or South? Union or Confederacy? The choices of which side to take grew more complicated in the early months of the Civil War.

10. Price's March of 1864

In 1864, Confederate General Sterling Price led 10,000 troops across Missouri in a campaign to seize Missouri from Union control. While his actions thrilled some, they terrorized countless others.

11. Quantrill's Raid & Order Number 11

Two of the most notorious events of the Civil War along the Missouri and Kansas border were Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence in 1863 and the issuance four days later of Order Number 11.

12. Rhetoric of the Civil War Press

Newspapers played a crucial role in shaping public perception of events on the Missouri and Kansas border.

13. Skirmish at Island Mound

The First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry was the first African-American Northern regiment to see battle and the first to die in action at the Battle of Island Mound, Missouri.