Last updated: February 19, 2021
Lesson Plan
Scenes from 1858: Fort Scott's Role in Bleeding Kansas
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 30 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Kansas Social Studies Standards 1-5, 7th Grade, Kansas History,
Kansas Social Studies Standard 3, 8th grade American History
Missouri Social Studies Standards Theme 5: Conflict and Crisis
Key Concepts and Understandings 6-8. AH.5.C - Thinking Skills:
- Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
What would you do to defend your life, your family, your property and your freedom? What issues do you feel so passionate about that you cannot compromise? How can we work together to solve problems despite our differences?
Objective
Describe an event that took place at Fort Scott during 1858 that involved violence or threats of violence.
Explain how tensions built up in that event that escalated violence or threats.
Discuss how we as a society can alleviate situations and prevent violence.
Background
From the early beginnings of the United States, the debate about slavery raised passions among the populace. Various attempts were made by some of the founding fathers to bring the slavery question to the forefront during the Constitutional Convention. After much debate, the delegates decided to drop the slavery issue as most felt it was a dying institution.
However, the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney put new life and profit into slavery. The balance of Senatorial power between free and slave states remained equal through the years until Missouri requested admission as a slave state. In order to keep the balance of power; Congress ratified the Missouri Compromise in 1820. Under the terms of the compromise, Missouri became a slave state and Maine, formerly a part of Massachusetts, entered the Union as a free state. However, future slave states created west of the Mississippi would be limited to the area south of the 36°30” line of latitude (the southern boundary of Missouri).
Over the next three decades, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas were admitted as slave states, but Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin all became free states. By 1848, the balance stood at 15 slave states and 15 free states. In 1850, California became a free state but Congress made concession to the slave states by passing the Fugitive Slave Act which mandated the return of runaway slaves, regardless of where in the Union they might be situated at the time of their discovery or capture.
By 1854, settlers began pressuring the government to open parts of the Great Plains region to settlement. This region had been set aside as a permanent home for Indians, but the nation’s thirst for more territory overrode this promise. Advocates of expansion proposed the creation of two territories: Kansas and Nebraska. Because both of these territories were north of 36°30”, Southern states were alarmed, as this would upset the balance of voting power. Stephen Douglas, Senator from Illinois, proposed opening the territories under the banner of popular sovereignty which would put the question of being a free or slave state to the voters in each territory.
Effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise limit of 36°30”, the Kansas-Nebraska Act ignited a firestorm. Most people in the country thought that Nebraska would become a free state and Kansas a slave state, but many in the North were unwilling to concede Kansas without a fight. Both sides rushed to claim Kansas as theirs; both sides sent settlers to the territory; and both sides started fighting over the outcome of the decision. This resulted in several years of fighting and violence known as “Bleeding Kansas”.
Trouble in Bourbon County
The Kansas Territorial Legislature established Bourbon County on September 12, 1855. Prior to its formal organization, the county had been populated primarily by proslavery advocates. Its geographical location in southern Kansas and its proximity to Missouri limited free-state migration. Proslavery men simply had to cross the Missouri state line to come to Kansas, whereas free staters came from Illinois, Indiana, and some all the way from New England. Therefore, it took longer for free state men to reach Bourbon County than it did for proslavery men.
Early on, proslavery advocates used their influence to affect the outcome of county politics. Many Missourians crossed the border just to vote in the first two elections held in the county. In the spring of 1856, a party of about thirty men from South Carolina, pretending good intentions, gathered information on the Free State men in Bourbon County and then proceeded to drive them from their homes.When free state men began to return to their property the next year, arguments over claims arose and were deferred to the District Court, Judge Joseph Williams, presiding. Judge Williams, being a proslavery man, ruled in most cases against the free staters. Crying foul, the free state men found a champion in James Montgomery.
James Montgomery
James Montgomery, one of the free-state leaders in Kansas and an officer in the Civil war, was a native of Ashtabula County, where he was born in 1814, and was a cousin of the hero of Quebec. In 1837, he went to Kentucky, where he taught school. He moved to Pike County, Missouri, with his family, in 1852, and a year later located in Jackson County in order to be ready to enter Kansas as soon as the territory was organized, and the lands opened to settlement. He purchased a claim from a pro-slavery settler about five miles from the present town of Mound City and it was not long until the free-state men of that locality recognized him as a leader.
In 1857, he organized and commanded the "Self-Protective Company”, which had been formed to defend the rights of the anti-slavery settlers, and backed by this company Montgomery ordered some of the most rabid pro-slavery citizens to leave the territory. After their departure, he settled down to improve his claim, but later in the year some of the free-state men of Bourbon County, who had been expelled by George W. Clarke in 1856, returned to take possession of their homes along the Little Osage River. They met with opposition and called upon Montgomery for assistance. In December he took the field with his company and created so much disturbance that Governor Denver found it necessary to order a detachment of soldiers to that part of the state to preserve order.
1858: A Most Violent YearBy 1858, tensions had increased to a flashpoint in Fort Scott. Radicals from both sides converged on the town. Two former Army structures became hotels. An infantry barracks, now called the Western Hotel, became the headquarters for the pro slavery movement in town. A former officers’ quarters, the Fort Scott Hotel, served as a haven for many of the free state men in town. Several violent incidents occurred.
- In April of 1858, Montgomery and his men fought U.S. troops stationed at Fort Scott in the battle of Paint Creek. One soldier was killed in this encounter.
- Soon after, the president of the Town Company, George Crawford, had a tense encounter with George Clarke, a leader of the radical pro slavery Border Ruffians.
- In May of 1858, Montgomery and his men drove pro-slavery forces from Linn County. In retaliation, eleven free staters were pulled out of their homes, taken to a ravine, and shot down. This incident, known as the Marais des Cygnes Massacre, was rumored to have been plotted in the Western Hotel.
- In repayment for this act, Montgomery and his raiders tried to burn down the Western Hotel. Several shots were fired into the hotel and surrounding homes, but the hotel was saved.
- Violence, such as this, caught the governor's attention. On June 15, 1858, he held a meeting at the Western Hotel to settle political unrest. While this meeting nearly broke out into a riot, it was successful. Peace and quiet reigned for a brief five-month period.
- Montgomery and his raiders struck again in December of 1858 when he rescued Benjamin Rice, a free stater. Rice had been arrested for murder and was imprisoned in the Fort Scott Hotel. Montgomery claimed that he was jailed illegally, so he came to Fort Scott to free him. In the struggle following Rice's rescue, former Deputy Marshal John Little, a pro-slavery advocate, fired shots into the ranks of the free staters. Little peered out of a window of his father's store (the former post headquarters) to observe the effects of the shooting. His movement was noted by a free stater, who shot and killed him.
Preparation
Read the background material on Bleeding Kansas, the Montgomery Raid Incident and the Clarke vs Crawford incident.
Assign kids roles in the Clarke vs Crawford incident.
Note: If you wish to extend the activity, you could also stage the other two scenarios in the extended activity. and assign roles in the other
Watch the Bleeding Kansas Intro video either as part of your lesson or in preparation for your lesson. https://go.nps.gov/35yrpq
Materials
Map showing how Montgomery Raid scene could be staged
Map showing how Western Hotel scene could be staged
Map showing how Peace Convention scene could be staged
Map showing how Crawford vs Clarke scene could be staged
Download Crawford vs. Clarke Map
This is a four minute video introduction to Bleeding Kansas at Fort Scott and briefly describes the incident in which John Little was killed.
Download Bleeding Kanas Intro- Death of John Little-Sene Campbell Letter
Western Hotel Background Information and Narration
Background Materials and Narration for Peace Convention Scene
Download Pease Convention Scene
Background Materialas and Narration for Montgomery Raid Scene
Download Montgomeryu Raid Scene
Background Material and Narration for Crawford Scene
Lesson Hook/Preview
How can people with different beliefs and ideas get along? Are there issues you feel so strongly about that you cannot compromise? Can you find common ground with people whose beliefs you don't agree with? As you act out these scenarios, consider ways that the incidents could have been avoided.
Procedure
- The activity in this program will consist of scenes from Fort Scott’s history in 1858. There are four scenes available from which to choose. It is up to you as the teacher to decide how many of them are presented. If you skip one or two of the scenes, briefly summarize the information in the scenes as the scenes build on each other. (i.e., Events in one scene brought about the events in another scene.)
- For the purposes of this lesson, the two most important scenes are the Montgomery Raid Incident and the Crawford vs Clark scene because they illustrate that people on both sides used violence and threats.
- This activity is similar to a Tableau. A tableau is a program where a narrative is read and actors stand still portraying the scene that is being narrated. Students will be the actors in this program while the presenter does the narration.
- There is a video presentation that summarizes the Montgomery Raid scene. You can choose to watch the video in lieu of staging that scene or you can choose to stage it yourself
- Students can be divided into groups to match the number of scenes that the program leader has chosen to portray.
- In each scene, there will be people staging the scene and a person narrating the scene.
- Except for the narrator, the other students will have no speaking roles. They will simply act out their roles while the reader does the narration.
- As an additional activity, there is a historic document related to each scene that could be read by another student. These documents are primary resource materials that are related to that scene.
- Attached you will find a map showing how each scene could be staged. The map and the staging instructions are designed as if the scene is being staged at Fort Scott. Just adapt the staging instructions to your classroom.
- After you have staged and acted out the scenes, hold a group discussion with the students. You may want to analyze the scenes and ask how violence could have been prevented or in some cases, how it was prevented.
Vocabulary
Abolitionist -someone who wants to abolish or completely end a practice on the grounds that it is morally wrong-in this case, slavery.
Free-Staters was the name given to settlers in Kansas Territory during the "Bleeding Kansas" period in the 1850s who opposed the expansion of slavery. The name derives from the term "free state", that is, a U.S. state without slavery.. Free staters didn't necessarily care about the plight of slavery where it already existed, they just didn't want slavery in Kansas. Their motives were more economic than they were humanitarian.
Proslavery advocates favored the continued enslavement of Black people, or were opposed to ending or altering the institution of slavery. Not all of its advocates were slaveholder, but they defended it as an institution. They favored the expansion of slavery into Kansas, believing that they had the right to move westward with their "property".
Slave-someone who is held in servitude as the chattel or property of another.. A slave can be bought and sold and has no control over their own life.