Medium: Text
Andrew H. Reeder to William Hutchinson
Date: August 25, 1856
This letter from Andrew H. Reeder to William Hutchinson describes Reeder’s efforts to raise money for the Free State cause in his travels through the northern states.
Medium: Text
George Washington Brown to friends
Date: August, 1856
This unsigned letter, probably, is written by George Washington Brown while he was being held prisoner at a camp near Lecompton, Kansas Territory, on treason charges,. He offers military advice…
Medium: Text
Charles Robinson to Messrs. Allen, Blood, Hutchinson and others
Date: August 16, 1856
Charles Robinson writes from Camp Sackett, near Lecompton, Kansas Territory, where he was being held prisoner on treason charges. He encourages free state supporters to negotiate with pro-slavery forces in…
Medium: Text
W. W. Updegraff to William Hutchinson
Date: August 5, 1856
W. W. Updegraff, writing from Osawatomie, Kansas Territory, describes pro-slavery forces stealing horses from free state supporters, the need of free state settlers in the Osawatomie area for financial assistance,…
Medium: Text
Joseph Pomeroy Root to William Hutchinson
Date: July 26, 1856
Root, writing from Topeka, Kansas Territory, requests $100 from the Kansas Central Committee to fund information-gathering activities in northeastern Kansas Territory. Root also speculates on the potential for military action…
Medium: Text
List of persons accompanying the second regular party sent by the N. E. A. Co. to Kansas Terr.
Date: March 20, 1855
This item lists of the names, residences, and former occupations of the members of the second party sent by the New England Emigrant Aid Company to Kansas Territory, under the…
Medium: Text
Vigilance Club’s secret sign
Date: 1855
This item describes the secret sign, password, and obligations for members of a Free State vigilance club headquartered in Lawrence, Kansas Territory.
Medium: Text
Invoice of Central Committee goods
Date: Between 1850 and 1861
This is an itemized inventory of goods maintained by the Kansas Central Committee for distribution to Free State citizens in need of relief. The inventoried goods consist primarily of clothing…
Medium: Text
Gen. Lane’s Answer to the President’s Message, Lawrence Republican Extra
Date: February 13, 1858
This address by General James Lane rebukes President James Buchanan’s message about Lane and Kansas Territory. Lane describes the many elections that Kansas had gone through and the intrusions of…
Medium: Text
“The Freeman’s Song” and “The Kansas Emigrant Song” lyrics
Date: 1854
These printed lyric sheets provide the words to “The Freeman’s Song,” which conveyed an anti-slavery message and to “The Kansas Emigrant Song” about the need for free state emigrants to…
Medium: Text
“Lays of the Emigrants” lyrics
Date: August 29, 1854
This item is subtitled, “as sung by the second party for Kanzas, on their departure from Boston.” It contains words to two songs. The first of the songs was written…
Medium: Text
Ho! For Kansas sheet music
Date: Between 1850 and 1860
This “Ho! For Kansas” sheet music was composed by R. C. M. Griswold with words by J. E. Manley.
Medium: Text
Purpose and Articles of Association
Date: Between 1850 and 1860
This printed document concerns the formation of the Pro Slavery Association of Clay County, Missouri. Its purpose is to make Kansas a slave state. It includes the purpose of the…
Medium: Text
The Western Dispatch–EXTRA
Date: September 3, 1856
This extra edition of the Western Dispatch contains a call to arms for Missourians against an expected attack from Lane and “3,000 lawless abolitionists.”
Medium: Text
Speech of Gerrit Smith in the Kansas Convention in Buffalo, July 10, 1856
Date: July 10, 1856
Garritt Smith made this speech to a meeting of the Kansas Convention in Buffalo, New York. In this speech, Smith argues in support of various resolutions related to border ruffians…
Medium: Text
Charles Robinson to Sara Robinson
Date: January 11, 1861
From Lawrence, Kansas Territory, Robinson writes his wife Sara, who was still in the East, concerning Jim Lane’s efforts to destroy Robinson’s influence. The governor is not too worried, however,…
Medium: Text
Charles Robinson’s speech welcoming William Seward
Date: September 26, 1860
This is a handwritten copy of Charles Robinson’s September 26, 1860, speech welcoming William H. Seward to Lawrence, Kansas Territory. It contains some additional comments by Robinson to the friends…
Medium: Text
Tax receipt, Quindaro Township, Kansas Territory
Date: August 1, 1860
This is an itemized statement issued by Quindaro Township for the taxes paid by Charles Robinson in 1859 on property owned in the city of Quindaro, Kansas Territory.
Medium: Text
Sara Robinson to Charles Robinson
Date: May 7, 1860
Sara Robinson in Lawrence, Kansas Territory, writes another very personal letter to her husband, Charles, who is in the East. She writes mostly of mundane matters but does mention speculation…
Medium: Text
Sara Robinson to Charles Robinson
Date: April 29, 1860
From Lawrence, Kansas Territory, Sara Robinson writes a mostly personal letter to her husband, Charles, upon her return from a visit to the Kansas City area (Quindaro, etc.)–apparently to see…
Medium: Text
Emma Millard to Charles Robinson
Date: March 22, 1860
Emma Millard [the annotation of “Willard” on the document is in error] of Troy, Kansas Territory, is updating her “American histories down to the present time,” and wants the governor’s…
Medium: Text
Charles Robinson to Emma Millard
Date: March 30, 1860
In response to Millard’s letter of March 22, Robinson writes from Quindaro, Kansas Territory, that he is “gratified” to learn of her interest in Kansas history, and that she is…
Medium: Text
Quindaro Common Council resolution
Date: March 13, 1860
Dated March 13, 1860, this “preamble and resolutions” discusses the current situation with regard to railroad developments and appoints Thaddeus Hyatt and Charles Robinson agents for the city to secure…
Medium: Text
Charles Robinson to Sara Robinson
Date: January 20, 1860
Charles Robinson wrote several letters to his wife, Sara Robinson in Lawrence, Kansas Territory, as he traveled East in January, 1860. From the Astor House in New York, he writes…
Medium: Text
Henry Wilson to Charles Robinson
Date: August 15, 1859
Henry Wilson, the senator from Natick, Massachusetts, writes Charles Robinson, in Lawrence, Kansas Territory, to express Wilson’s, and his friend’s, anxiety “about your new state.” Wilson believes it a mistake…