MARC JACOBS
Hutch Post
KANSAS — Kansas marks its 165th birthday today, celebrating the day it officially joined the Union on Jan. 29, 1861. But as historians often point out, Kansas’ path to statehood was anything but peaceful.
To mark Kansas Day, we visited with Dr. Jay Price, professor of history at Wichita State University and director of WSU’s Local and Community History Program, about the era known as Bleeding Kansas—a violent and deeply consequential chapter that shaped not only the state, but the nation.
Dr. Price, who has been at Wichita State since 1999, said Kansas’ story begins well before statehood, in the aftermath of the Mexican War and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
“That law opened the center of the continent and raised a fundamental question,” Price said. “What kind of society was this new territory going to be?”
At the heart of the conflict was slavery. For decades, the Missouri Compromise had attempted to maintain a balance between slave and free states. But the Kansas-Nebraska Act introduced the idea of popular sovereignty, allowing settlers themselves to vote on whether slavery would be permitted.
Kansas quickly became the battleground.
Pro-slavery forces—many crossing in temporarily from neighboring Missouri—clashed with Free State settlers arriving from New England, New York, and other northern states. Fraudulent elections, rival governments, and violent confrontations followed. By the mid-1850s, Kansas had two competing territorial governments, each claiming to represent the legitimate voice of the people.
“One side viewed the Free Staters as rebels violating the rule of law,” Price said. “The other side believed they were exercising the same rights the American colonists claimed against Britain—resisting an illegitimate government.”
The conflict escalated with harsh laws targeting anti-slavery speech and actions. Even possessing or distributing abolitionist literature like Uncle Tom’s Cabin could bring severe punishment. Figures such as John Brown emerged during this period, determined to prevent slavery from taking root in the territory.
Ultimately, demographics shifted. By 1858, Free Staters gained a population majority, leading to the adoption of the Wyandotte Constitution in 1859, which banned slavery. Though southern lawmakers in Congress initially blocked Kansas’ admission, the secession of southern states following Abraham Lincoln’s election cleared the way.
Kansas was admitted to the Union on Jan. 29, 1861—just weeks before the Civil War began.
Dr. Price said the legacy of Bleeding Kansas still helps explain the state’s identity today.
“We often think of Kansas simply as a ‘Free State,’ but it’s more complicated,” he said. “Kansas has always been a borderland—politically, culturally, and historically—with both northern and southern influences.”
That complexity is reflected in county names, political traditions, and long-standing cultural divisions that continue to shape the state.
As Kansans celebrate Kansas Day, the history behind the holiday serves as a reminder that the state was forged through conflict over freedom, legitimacy, and the meaning of democracy—issues that remain relevant more than a century and a half later.