American History Tellers - Bleeding Kansas | John Brown's Crusade | 1

Episode Date: April 14, 2021

In the 1850s, the United States was lurching toward a crisis over slavery -- and abolitionist John Brown stepped into the fray. Brown believed it was his God-given destiny to destroy slavery. His crusade took him from abolitionist meetings in the Northeast, to the Underground Railroad in Ohio, to the bloody plains of Kansas.In 1854, a fierce conflict erupted over whether the territory of Kansas would join the Union as a free state or slave state. As tensions escalated, Brown would rush to the center of the gathering storm and hatch a violent plan for striking back against proslavery forces.Listen to new episodes 1 week early and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/historytellers.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's December 1837, just before dawn on a bitterly cold night in Hudson, Ohio. Three weeks ago, you and your little brother escaped the Virginia plantation where you've spent your entire life. You're making your way north via the Underground Railroad, and you've spent the past day and night hiding here in the hayloft of a barn. Your brother coughs and shifts uncomfortably. How much longer do you think we'll have to wait? Hard to say. Hopefully we'll get moving soon. You shiver and wrap your arms

around yourself. You're chilled to the bone after spending days outside. A chill made worse by constant fear of being captured. You've seen what happens to runaways when they're returned. They get flogged, shackled, branded, and beaten. Your brother's been fighting a cough since you crossed the Ohio River. You reach over and adjust a scratchy woolen blanket that covers his shoulders. Thanks. I sure wish we could have done this in summer. You know we couldn't have. We need the shorter days and longer nights. Can cover more ground in the dark. Shh, I think I hear the station master. Tall white man strides into the barn with a stony expression on his face.

Evening, boys. It's time to escort you to your next stop. Let me help you down from there. My apologies, I wish I could offer you more hospitality. You can't have been comfortable. It hasn't been so bad, thank you, sir. The man reaches out an arm to help you down the ladder, but suddenly freezes, his blue eyes flickering with anger. Get back under there, quickly now. It's that wretched neighbor of mine. The man hurries out of the barn, and you and your brother crouch behind the haystacks, desperate to make yourselves invisible.

What if we get caught? Shh, keep your voice down. You hear the two men talking outside. Your brother coughs again, and there's a moment of terror as the voices fall silent. You can hear your own heart racing. It could be a slave catcher out there, here to return you to the plantation and whatever brutal punishment awaits you.

After what seems like an eternity, the stationmaster returns. Well, I managed to get rid of him. Nosiest man I ever met. Had to tell him I was driving out to Erie on business and needed an early start. You nod and watch as Brown attaches a cart to his horse at the entrance to the barn. We're much obliged to you, sir. I'm sorry about my brother. He's got this cough. No need to explain.

Now you come down from there. Let's get you in this wagon. The man helps you climb down from the hayloft and ushers you toward the front of the wagon, behind a few burlap sacks of horse feet. You'll have to take cover under this canvas. You and your brother lie on the floor of the wagon, trying to make yourselves as flat as possible. You have to make absolutely certain that no one can see you. As the station master pulls out of the barn, he speaks to you in a low voice over his shoulder, careful not to turn his head and look directly where you're hiding. It won't always be like this.

If God is my witness, I swear, one day I'll make war on slavery. Wipe out the stain on our nation for good, even if it's the last thing I do on this earth. Under the canvas, your brother flashes you a dubious look. You share his skepticism. At other stops on the Underground Railroad, you've grown used to lofty talk from white abolitionists. But there's something different about this stationmaster. There's an intensity about him, a burning sense of purpose. You get the impression that when he talks of a war on slavery, it's not just empty words. He means war. From the team behind American History Tellers comes a new book,

The Hidden History of the White House. Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, intimate moments, and shocking scandals that shaped our nation. From the War of 1812 to Watergate. Available now wherever you're obsessed with. Listen to The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. On our show, we take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made, and we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. In 1837, radical abolitionist John Brown was a stationmaster on the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people escape to freedom. Two decades later, he would lead a small,

integrated army on a daring raid of a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to ignite an anti-slavery rebellion. And indeed, his actions moved a shocked nation closer to the brink of civil war. Brown's war on slavery would make him one of American history's most polarizing figures, a man revered as a hero and a martyr and branded as a madman and a murderer. For most of his life, Brown was an obscure, struggling tradesman. But he never wavered from his conviction that slavery was immoral and that it was his God-given duty to bring it to an end.

It was an obsession that would lead Brown to the new U.S. territory of Kansas in the 1850s as the conflict over the territorial expansion of slavery reached a bloody crescendo. To help tell the story of John Brown and the many African Americans who aided him on his crusade, we've enlisted actor Ace Anderson to voice the characters you'll hear throughout our series. This is Episode 1, Bleeding Kansas. John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800 to a deeply religious family. His parents were devout Calvinists who lived by a rigid moral code. Brown's father, Owen, raised him to believe that there was no greater sin than slavery, and that principle became the driving purpose of Brown's life.

When Brown was just five years old, his family packed up a wagon and moved out west to the frontier town of Hudson, Ohio, 25 miles south of Cleveland. Brown received little formal schooling, but he was educated in what he called the school of adversity, confronting the daily hardships of frontier living, as well as the death of his mother when he was just eight years old. Brown grew up in an environment immersed in anti-slavery sentiment. His father befriended local abolitionists and became a stationmaster on the Underground Railroad, a network of anti-slavery activists who provided shelter and transportation to enslaved people who had escaped southern plantations.

When John was 12 years old, he saw a slave boy get brutally beaten with an iron shovel by his owner. He would later claim that that was the moment he swore internal war with slavery. When Brown was 20, he married a woman named Dianthe. The couple had seven children, five of whom lived to maturity. Brown took up his father's trade of tanning leather and built a tannery deep in the woods of western Pennsylvania. In 1832, Dianthe died from complications following childbirth, and Brown soon married his teenage housekeeper, Mary. She would have thirteen children, though only six of those lived into adulthood. Brown was a brooding, iron-willed man with a wiry, scarecrow-like frame,

a hawk-like nose, and piercing blue-gray eyes. An acquaintance described his gaze as so menacing it could drive a dog straight out of a room. As the patriarch of a large family, Brown was both loved and feared by his children. They knew him to be funny and tender-hearted, but they also learned to dread the harsh punishments he could dole out. From him, they also learned strong religious and anti-slavery beliefs. In the 1830s, America was still a young country. But slavery had been an institution in the South for more than two centuries, defining its economy and shaping its society. America's founders had known that slavery contradicted their ideals of liberty and equality. They had

hoped and predicted that it would eventually fade away, even while allowing it to prosper during their lifetimes or even benefit directly from it. But by the 1830s, slavery had only grown more entrenched amid a boom in cotton planting. There were more than two million enslaved people in the United States. To their owners, they were worth more than a billion dollars, $28 billion in today's money. Slavery was the bedrock of the Southern social system, the source of the South's political power, and the foundation of a rigid racial hierarchy that benefited nearly all white Americans, including those in the North. Though Northern states had abolished slavery,

Northern banks and textile mills were deeply embedded in the lucrative cotton economy. By the end of the 1830s, slave-grown cotton would become the nation's primary commercial crop, making slavery the economic cornerstone of the agricultural South and critical to the profits of the industrial North. And while Black people might have been free in the North, few white Northerners were prepared to see them as equals. Black Northerners faced discrimination, racist laws, and violence. Only a small minority of their white counterparts were abolitionists, and they were not a unified group. A complex range of moral, religious, economic,

and political motives drove their opposition to slavery. They argued fiercely amongst each other over how to abolish slavery and what the status of former slaves should be after they gained freedom. Many advocated for gradual emancipation schemes and for sending formerly enslaved black people to colonies in Africa. As these approaches stalled, a growing number of black and white activists began to demand immediate abolition. Still, most white Americans, North and South, considered such views to be extreme. In 1835, John Brown moved his family back to the Hudson, Ohio area, which had become a hub

for anti-slavery activism. Brown, however, often went further than others around him. Once, he shocked his local community when he stood up in the middle of a church service and insisted his family switch pews with a black family who'd been forced to sit in the back, a practice he called an unchristian discrimination. But in Hudson, Ohio, John Brown was growing restless. It wasn't enough for him to help fugitive slaves or fight discrimination in his church.

The battle called for more, and he sensed that a larger destiny awaited him. Imagine it's November 1836. You're in a church in Hudson, Ohio, for your first abolitionist meeting. The movement is growing in this area, and it's inspired you to think about stepping into the fray. That's it for today, folks, but I do hope to see you next time. And don't forget to sign your name to the petition at the back of the room on your way out. You stand up with the others and fall in line to add your name to the petition. As a lifelong Christian, you've always believed that slavery was a sin.

And with all these attacks on abolitionists over the past few years, you're starting to question how you can truly live a moral life as a bystander. As you wait to sign your name, you decide to strike up a conversation with the man in front of you, tapping him on the shoulder. Yes? As he turns around and you take in his hollow cheeks and menacing stare, you almost regret bothering him.

Well, what do you think of all this talk of immediate abolition? Tempers sure are getting high. I haven't seen you around here before. You new in town? And you are? John Brown. It's a pleasure to meet you. As I was saying, well, there's no place for slavery in a modern society.

But to end it all at once? It seems hasty to me. Just think of what might happen to the common white laborer once freed slaves inundate the labor market. And if the economy of the South collapses, that spells danger for us all. Brown takes a step closer and raises his chin defiantly. Oh, sure, sure. There are freedmen who've shown a capacity for education, but I fear that all this rhetoric is getting a little too heated. The last speaker was rather alarming. More alarming than holding men and women in chains for another day, another hour? Yes, but we must work to calm passions. I don't think anyone will forget what happened in Virginia after Nat Turner's botched rebellion. We don't want any Southerners thinking we're trying to incite a race war. We must find a peaceful solution.

There may come a time when peace is not enough. Brown looks at you, his pale eyes blazing, and you find you can't quite meet his gaze. Well, I must be going. Good day, sir. As you fall out of line and walk away, you find yourself wondering if you really want to cast your lot in with these abolitionists after all. It seems to you that they're marching down a dangerous path, one that could only end in bloodshed. The question of whether to use violence to end slavery sparked heated debates among abolitionists. Most opposed the use of force, but that didn't stop Southerners from painting abolitionists as dangerous radicals bent on instigating violence, especially after 1831.

It was in that year that a black preacher named Nat Turner led a rebellion of enslaved people against their captors in Virginia. His rebellion failed, but not before the rebels killed over 50 white Virginians. Nat Turner's rebellion ignited a culture of fear and paranoia in the South, hardening Southern fears of abolitionists. Even in the North, anti-slavery activists increasingly found themselves the targets of pro-slavery violence. In November 1837, a white abolitionist newspaper publisher named Elijah Lovejoy was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in Illinois. Lovejoy's violent death shocked the North, and he became a martyr among abolitionists. Soon after Lovejoy's murder, Brown attended a memorial service in Hudson, where he suddenly rose from his seat, raised his right hand, and issued a solemn bow. He declared,

Here before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery. It was Brown's first public pledge to devote his life to fighting slavery. Privately, he was already thinking about using violence in that fight. One evening, he had gathered his family around the fire, and as he sat with his wife Mary and his three eldest sons, John Jr., Jason, and Owen, he asked them to make an oath, swearing secrecy and devotion to the purpose of fighting slavery by force of arms. But financial difficulties kept Brown from fulfilling his sacred promise. He was weighed down by debt and constantly struggling to provide for his large family.

He and his wife were raising nine children, all but three under the age of ten. Over the next decade, he moved his family multiple times as he tried to eke out a living as a farmer, canal builder, surveyor, and real estate developer. In this last occupation, Brown borrowed heavily to invest in land, but when the Panic of 1837 triggered a nationwide depression, he lost everything. Brown's creditors hounded him for the next five years until he finally declared bankruptcy in 1842. The following year, tragedy struck when four of Brown's children died of dysentery. But in 1844, Brown's luck turned around.

He was able to stave off poverty after going into business with a wealthy sheep farmer. In 1846, he convinced his partner to open a wool warehouse in Springfield, Massachusetts. He moved his family there and ran the business with two of his sons. Springfield had a sizable black population that Brown mixed with to a degree that was unusual for a white man of his time. He hired black people to work in his warehouse,

worshipped at a black church, and attended lectures by black abolitionists. And it was in Springfield that Brown first met the era's most celebrated black abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. The eloquent and charismatic Douglass had escaped slavery at the age of 21. He used his gifts as a writer and orator to become America's most prominent black voice for abolition. In November 1847, Douglass was in Springfield on a speaking tour, and Brown invited him to dinner in his family home. Douglas was surprised by the shabby furniture in Brown's house. The family used their spare money to aid fugitive slaves. After dinner, the pair stayed up all night talking, and Brown told Douglas about his plan to lead a war against slavery. Brown laid out a large map on his dining room table and traced his finger

along the Appalachian Mountains, which ran through the heart of the South, from Virginia to Georgia. He told Douglas that he wanted to raise an interracial militia, stationing separate units along the mountain range. From these secret hideouts, he wanted to stage surprise raids on nearby plantations and arm and liberate enslaved people. Brown hoped he could inspire terror throughout the South, weakening slavery to the point that it would collapse. Douglas was dubious of the idea of a war against slavery, but he was nevertheless struck by the intensity of Brown's passion and commitment to the abolitionist cause. A few months later, Douglas wrote about his first impression of Brown in his newspaper, The North Star, reflecting,

Though a white gentleman, he is in sympathy a black man, and as deeply interested in our cause as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery. But soon after his meeting with Brown, Douglas' views evolved. When he spoke later at an anti-slavery convention, he expressed fear that slavery could only be destroyed through bloodshed. As he recalled Brown explaining during their meeting, slavery was a state of war, and the slave had a right to anything necessary to secure his freedom. But for now, Brown's battle plans would have to wait. Faced again with mounting debts, he struggled to keep his wool business afloat and provide for his family.

But soon, an increasingly heated national debate over the territorial expansion of slavery would further radicalize Brown. He would be drawn into joining the Rush West to shape the future of his nationhelp all thanks to an approach he developed called neuro-linguistic programming. Even though NLP worked for some, its methods have been criticized for being dangerous in the wrong hands. Throw in Richard's dark past as a cocaine addict and murder suspect, and you can't help but wonder what his true intentions were. I'm Saatchi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the hosts of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims, and what's left once the facade falls away. We recently dove into the story of the godfather of modern mental manipulation, Richard Bandler, whose methods inspired some of the most toxic and criminal self-help movements of the lastfather of modern mental manipulation, Richard Bandler, whose methods inspired some of

the most toxic and criminal self-help movements of the last two decades. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scamfluencers and more Exhibit C true crime shows like Morbid and Kill List early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Check out Exhibit C in the Wondery app for all your true crime listening. In November 1991, media tycoon Robert Maxwell mysteriously vanished from his luxury yacht in the Canary Islands.

But it wasn't just his body that would come to the surface in the days that followed. It soon emerged that Robert's business was on the brink of collapse and behind his facade of wealth and success was a litany of bad investments, mounting debt, and multi-million dollar fraud. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show Business Movers. We tell the true stories of business leaders who risked it all, the critical

moments that define their journey, and the ideas that transform the way we live our lives. In our latest series, a young refugee fleeing the Nazis arrives in Britain determined to make something of his life. Taking the name Robert Maxwell, he builds a publishing and newspaper empire that spans the globe. But ambition eventually curdles into desperation. And Robert's determination to succeed turns into a willingness to do anything to get ahead. Follow Business Movers wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app.

As the United States expanded west in the first half of the 19th century, American politics was consumed by a heated debate over the future of slavery. Those in the South wanted to permit slavery in Western territories, and those in the North wanted to ban it. The Compromise of 1820 settled the issue temporarily by drawing a horizontal line across the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Slavery was forbidden north of the 3630 latitude line and permitted below it. For the next three decades, this compromise maintained a delicate balance of power in Congress between free and slave states. But in 1850, the conflict resurfaced.

After its war with Mexico, the United States seized a vast expanse in the Southwest, stretching from Texas to California. The 3630 line only pertained to territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. This new land reignited the debate over slavery's expansion. Americans on both sides of the issue feared that if the Southwestern territories went one way or the other, it would upset the balance of power in Congress and put the Union in danger of splintering apart. Lawmakers resolved the issue by brokering the Compromise of 1850, a truce that admitted California as a free state while allowing slavery in the rest of the Southwest.

As part of the Compromise, pro-slavery forces pushed through a draconian new piece of legislation called the Fugitive Slave Act. This act forced Northerners to return runaway slaves to their owners under penalty of law. It also denied jury trial to any black person accused of being a runaway and barred them from testifying on their own behalf. The Fugitive Slave Act enraged abolitionists, and none more than John Brown. He became more determined than ever to support the anti-slavery cause. In 1849, Brown moved his family to an experimental black community in North Elba,

New York, where a wealthy abolitionist had donated large tracts of land to freed former enslaved people. In this remote part of the Adirondack Mountains, Brown lived and worked with black families and mentored black farmers. During this time, Brown continued to manage his wool business in Springfield, but he also ramped up his involvement in the abolitionist movement. In the fall of 1850, he converted his Springfield wool warehouse into a station on the Underground Railroad. The following year, he founded a militant group called the League of Gileadites, dedicated to helping runaways evade slave catchers. Brown had grand ambitions for advancing the abolitionist cause, but once again financial

struggles got in the way. In 1849, Brown had tried and failed to expand his wool business in Europe, leaving him again with heavy debts. Over the next few years, he spent much of his time in court fighting lawsuits from his creditors. While Brown was dealing with legal matters, a storm was gathering over the territorial expansion of slavery. The uneasy solution provided by the Compromise of 1850 soon proved only temporary. Slavery had long been outlawed in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska because they were located north of the 3630 dividing line set out in the Compromise of 1820. But in May of 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act,

potentially paving the way for those territories to become pro-slavery. The law repealed the Compromise of 1820 by giving settlers themselves the right to decide whether their territories would be slave or free. With a single act of Congress, the fragile truce that kept the North and South in balance was shattered. The law became a turning point, inflaming tensions and making both Northerners and Southerners less willing to compromise. Those in the North denounced what they called a slave power conspiracy. They saw an aggressive and insidious regime of slaveholders seizing control of government, subverting Republican principles, and trying to force their labor system on the rest of the country. Southerners saw those in the North as zealous anti-slavery radicals determined to destroy their way of life. In reality, few Northerners wanted to abolish

slavery outright. But a growing number called Free Soilers opposed extending slavery into the Western territories because they didn't want white farmers and laborers to have to compete with slave labor. In 1854, Free Soilers flocked to the newly formed Republican Party, which had a rising star in a lawyer and former U.S. congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln made a name for himself by criticizing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. But with Kansas and Nebraska officially organized as U.S. territories and set on the path to statehood, settlers poured in, lured by the prospect of cheap land and economic opportunity. But they would also be deciding the status of slavery at the ballot box.

No one thought that the more northerly Nebraska would become a slave state. But Kansas, located to the west of the slave-holding state of Missouri, was up for grabs. Southerners hoped that if Kansas became a slave state, other territories would soon follow. And the stage was set for Kansas to become a battleground. Among the settlers rushing to Kansas were five of John Brown's adult sons, John Jr., Owen, Frederick, Jason, and Salmon. But their father stayed behind. Brown felt a strong urge to join his sons in Kansas.

But he was in his mid-fifties, and life had taken its toll. Brown had failed at nearly every venture he had ever tried. He decided to remain in North Elba with the rest of his family and community of freedmen he was ever tried. He decided to remain in North Elba with the rest of his family and community of freedmen he was devoted to. But the Kansas-Nebraska Act infuriated John Brown. Soon after the law's passage, he wrote a letter published in Frederick Douglass' newspaper, attacking lawmakers as the fiends in human shape who had passed abominably wicked and unjust laws. Meanwhile, the Browns' sons arrived in Kansas in the spring of 1855,

along with their wives and children. They set up their camp, which they called Brown Station, near the Pottawatomie Creek. By then, the territory was swept into a fierce conflict between settlers who were pro-slavery and those who opposed it. Free staters wanted to keep slavery out of Kansas. Many of these settlers were backed by Northeastern abolitionists and free soil groups that had financed their journeys west and supplied them with weapons. Some opposed slavery on moral grounds, others for economic reasons. But for many, their motives were more racist than altruistic. They wanted to make Kansas not just free from slavery, but free from black people altogether.

Meanwhile, pro-slavery settlers had the backing of powerful southern slaveholders. Heavily armed vigilantes, known as border ruffians, descended on Kansas from Missouri, determined to make the neighboring territory a slave state. In 1854, tensions between pro-slavery and free state settlers steadily mounted. On Election Day in November, Missouri Senator David Rice Acheson led some 1,700 border ruffians into Kansas to cast fraudulent ballots. This electoral fraud succeeded in sending a pro-slavery representative to the U.S. Congress. A wealthy and belligerent slave owner,

Acheson was nicknamed Old Bourbon for his love of the brown liquor. He told Missourians it was their duty to defend slavery with bayonet and with blood, and if need be, kill every goddamn abolitionist in the district. A few months later, the crisis in Kansas worsened. In March 1855, Kansas voters went to the polls again, this time to elect a territorial legislature. But again, thousands of border ruffians joined them, launching a new campaign of terror.

Imagine it's March 30, 1855, Election Day in Lawrence, Kansas. You're leading a party of armed men into the town hall where voters are lined up to cast their ballots. You're determined to send pro-slavery candidates to the new legislature for the territory. As you step into the polling station, you take a swig of whiskey from your flask and announce your marching orders to the other men. You three, revolvers out. I want these voters to know we're armed and ready. The rest of you, follow me to the ballot boxes. As you cross the room, you stumble and nearly knock over an older man. The pile of papers in his arms falls to the floor.

Excuse me, just what do you think you're doing? We're here to vote. I'm the official in charge of this station, and I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I recognize some of you fellows, and I know you've come over the border from Missouri just like in the last election. Go back where you came from. The official in charge, huh? That means you can help us. Where are our ballots?

The man's eyes dart to a stack of papers behind him, then at the rifle in your hands. He swallows nervously, but stands his ground. You're not Kansas residents, and what you're doing here is illegal. Who's to say we're not residents? We're currently residing in Kansas, are we boys? And our rights and our property are at stake. You reach for a stack of ballots, but the poll worker takes a step forward, blocking your path. Get back. I won't see our democratic elections undermined by a drunken

mob. Have it your way then. Boys, show them the rope. Three of your men have brought a long piece of rope into the polling station. They grin as they raise it aloft so all the voters can see. You smile and nod at the poll worker, who's suddenly looking a lot less defiant. That's right. We're prepared to hang every damned abolitionist who gets in our way. With that, you walk past the official, who now stands frozen in fear, and scoop up a stack of ballots. Ten or more for every man in your party. Come on, boys. Time to cast our votes. You and your men begin filling out ballots for the pro-slavery candidates.

Slaveholding is the bedrock of your wealth and power, and your birthright as a Southerner. You'll protect it at any cost, and you're not about to let any yellow-bellied freestaters stand in your way. By 1855, there were 8,500 settlers in Kansas. On March 30th, some 5,000 border ruffians poured into Kansas to illegally vote for pro-slavery candidates. Their numbers were more than enough to tip the balance, even more so because they cast thousands of extra ballots. They were armed to the teeth with knives, pistols, and shotguns. Their organized campaign of fraud, intimidation, and violence worked.

The ruffians cast more than 80% of the votes to elect a radically pro-slavery legislature. Of the 40 state representatives, 39 supported slavery. This new Kansas legislature promptly moved to legalize slavery and passed harsh new laws to protect the institution. Anyone who spoke out against slavery could be punished with prison and hard labor. Anyone found assisting runaway slaves could be put to death. The Free State Movement was outgunned and growing desperate. In June 1855, John Brown Jr. sent a letter urging his father to come to Kansas and to bring weapons with him.

He wrote, The great drama will open here, the great struggle in arms between freedom and despotism in America. Give us the arms, and we are ready for the contest. Brown needed no further convincing. Despite his obligations in the East, he had long felt the pull to go West, and his son's letters had only grown more alarming. He answered his son's call, determined to protect his family and strike a decisive blow against slavery in Kansas. Brown raised money among his abolitionist friends, loaded up a wagon with guns

and ammunition, and headed west. Kansas had become a battlefield over the future of slavery, and soon, John Brown would plunge himself into the conflict. This is the emergency broadcast system. A ballistic missile threat has been detected inbound to your area.

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very foundations of the White House are laid in 1792, and you'll watch as the British burn it down in 1814. Then you'll hear the intimate conversations between FDR and Winston Churchill as they make plans to defeat Nazi forces in 1941. And you'll be in the Situation Room when President Barack Obama approves the raid to bring down the most infamous terrorist in American history. Order The Hidden History of the White House now in hardcover or digital edition, wherever you get your books. In October 1855, John Brown arrived at his son's camp on Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas, known as Brown's Station. It had been nearly two decades since he stood up in a church in Ohio and publicly vowed to dedicate his life to ending slavery. He had befriended abolitionists, championed black farmers, and helped former enslaved people escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad. But he was no closer to his goal of destroying the institution.

Slavery and its supporters seemed to grow more powerful by the day. When Brown rolled into his son's homestead, he was shocked to find them living in crude, mud-soaked tents. Life on the frontier was precarious for any new arrival, and his sons and their families had gotten the worst of it. They were starving and sick with fever and flu. Torrential late summer rains followed by frigid autumn winds had ruined their crops and made them more susceptible to illness. Brown quickly went to work nursing his boys' fevers and building sturdy log cabins. Despite his age, Brown approached his new life in Kansas with boundless energy,

and he quickly brought order to Brown Station. Of all of John Brown's sons, 34-year-old John Jr. was the most similar to his father in his willingness to take up arms for the abolitionist cause. That fall, John Jr. organized a small militia called the Pottawatomie Rifles. They traded threats with pro-slavery neighbors, though no actual violence broke out. After the pro-slavery border ruffians established a government through fraud,

the Free Staters organized a convention to challenge the legislature they called bogus and their harsh slave codes. They passed a resolution that declared, We owe no allegiance or obedience called bogus and their harsh slave codes. They passed a resolution that declared, We owe no allegiance or obedience to the tyrannical enactments of this spurious legislature, and will resist them to a bloody issue so soon as we can ascertain that peaceable remedies shall fail. The Free State settlers created a rogue government of their own based in Topeka. They drew up a constitution that banned slavery but also barred free black people from

entering Kansas. In 1855, there were only 150 free blacks in Kansas, and most freestaters wanted to keep it that way. So at the close of 1855, two governments wrestled for control over the Kansas territory, though the federal government only recognized the pro-slavery one, it seemed Kansas was on the verge of civil war. But the winter of 1855 and 1856 was one of the coldest of the century. Sub-zero temperatures and icy gusts drove settlers inside, and the conflict subsided. But there were still scattered incidents of violence. In January, a Free State supporter was hacked to death with knives and hatchets and abandoned on his own doorstep.

Then, when the spring thaw came, the bloodshed intensified. Free State settlers were tarred and feathered and shot dead by pro-slavery forces. The Free Staters formed militias to fend off attacks, armed with weapons provided by Northeastern abolitionists. But they found themselves outmatched. Soon, Kansas was at war with itself. It was the start of a period of violence that became known as Bleeding Kansas. Each side had their base, and they were dangerously nearby to one another.

The pro-slavery capital was located in Lecompton, just 12 miles from the Free State Enclave of Lawrence, a stronghold for abolitionist sentiment. And it was there, in the spring of 1856, that Lawrence would be the site of a shocking escalation in the violence. Imagine you're the publisher of an abolitionist newspaper called the Herald of Freedom. It's May 21st in 1856, and though you're in your office in Lawrence, Kansas, you're growing worried. A gang of border ruffians is swarming the town. You've been extremely critical of the pro-slavery state legislature for the past few months, and you know you're in danger.

You gather up important documents while your assistant peers out the front window. The ruffians are getting closer. Jesus, I've never seen such a motley-looking bunch. Come on, quickly now. We need to pack up the type. You and your assistant grab handfuls of the small letter blocks used to typeset each issue of your paper. You stuff as many as you can into a satchel. But you've only gathered up a few before the door flings open and a man steps into your office. He has his revolver pointed right at you. Under the greasy hair that falls across his forehead, there's a frenzied look in his eyes. Out into the street. Now. You throw your hands up in the air.

Leave us alone. I'm begging you. You damned abolitionists will never print another word against the government of Kansas. Suddenly, a dozen men swarm into your office and aim their guns at you and your assistant and grab you and shove you into the street. Destroy the press, all the equipment you can find. Arrest me if you must, but please don't touch the equipment. You try to rush back inside,

but one of the ruffians holds you back. You stare over his shoulder, watching in horror as the men take a sledgehammer to your press. You watch in disbelief at the chaos unfolding around you. Inside your shop, men are confiscating your type, destroying equipment. While out on the street, they're piling up

your papers and books. Your stomach churns as you watch the men douse your life's work in kerosene and set it ablaze. This is a despicable assault on freedom of the press. But the ruffian just laughs. This, my friend, is a lesson about spewing dangerous Yankee propaganda. The men unfurl a large banner and hoist it above your office.

They have scrawled the words Southern Rights across it. As you watch your office plundered and destroyed, you vow to yourself that you won't be silenced. The fight to make Kansas free from the evils of slavery is too important. On May 21, 1856, some 750 armed vigilantes descended on the town of Lawrence. Pro-slavery Missourians and wealthy slaveholders from across the South had recruited and financed the mob, which included not only border ruffians, but soldiers and slave patrol officers from Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.

These vigilantes destroyed two abolitionist newspaper offices, throwing their equipment in the Kansas River. Next, Missouri Senator David Rice Atchison led a gang in ransacking the local hotel, a hub for Kansas abolitionists. They shot it through with cannonballs before finally torching it. And as the mobs swarmed the town, looting homes and businesses, they carried banners proclaiming supremacy of the white race and Southern rights to all. One member of the invading posse gleefully declared, Soon, the violence in Kansas spilled over into the halls of power in Washington. Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner had recently delivered a blistering

tirade called The Crime Against Kansas, in which he branded pro-slavery men as hirelings picked from the drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy civilization. He also ridiculed pro-slavery senators, including Atchison and South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler. Sumner's diatribe enraged Butler's distant cousin, the hot-headed South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks. On May 22nd, just one day after the sacking of Lawrence, Brooks attacked Sumner at his desk in the Senate with a walking cane, beating him to within an inch of his life. Brooks only stopped when his cane finally splintered into pieces. Northerners were outraged to see such a brazen act of violence transpire on the floor of the Senate. Southerners were thrilled. Hostilities between the North and

South reached feverish new heights, and the bonds of the Union seemed closer than ever to breaking. In Kansas, John Brown was furious over the failure of free staters to defend Lawrence. But it was the news out of Washington, according to his son Salmon, that was the finishing decisive touch. Brown felt he could no longer sit back and watch anti-slavery forces stand helpless in the face of the brutal and bloodthirsty attacks of the pro-slavery forces. So on the night of May 22nd, Brown went into the woods, burning with a righteous fury, and prayed for guidance. He would

emerge with a plan for armed retribution, an act of terror he hoped would put the fear of God into the hearts of his enemies. For Brown, the only remaining way to end slavery was through bloodshed. From Wondery, this is Episode 1 of Bleeding Kansas from American History Tellers. On the next episode, as Kansas descends into warfare, John Brown leads his men in a ruthless act of vengeance. Brown's act catapults him into the national spotlight as he makes plans to take his crusade straight into the heart of the slave-holding South. right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me,

Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Molly Bach. Sound design by Derek Behrens. Music by Lindsey Graham. Voice acting by Ace Anderson. This episode is written by Ellie Stanton. Sound design by Derek Behrens. Music by Lindsey Graham. Voice acting by Ace Anderson. This episode is written by Ellie Stanton. Edited by Dorian Marina. Our senior producer is Andy Herman. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer-Beckman and Marsha Louis. Created by Hernán López for Wondering.

Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic, bats and crucifixes. Even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot of the 19th century, but it also has so much resonance today. The vampire doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror. So when we look in the mirror, the only thing we see is our own monstrous abilities. From the host and producer of American History Tellers and History Daily

comes the new podcast, The Real History of Dracula. We'll reveal how author Bram Stoker raided ancient folklore, exploited Victorian fears around sex, science, and religion, Thank you.