Bleeding Kansas, Lawrence Kansas 1856

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After the open declaration, as outlined by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, that Kansas would be open to popular sovereignty as it regarded slavery, people from both sides flocked to Kansas in hopes of voting and subsequently swaying the vote. In Lawrence Kansas on May 21, 1856, a group of pro-slavery men ransacked much of the town, burning buildings and murdering five pro-slavery men. The events that unfolded this day are often seen as the first violent aggressions of the Civil War.