Bleeding Kansas Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era Nicole Etcheson New in Paperback: September 2006 xiv, 370 pages, 26 photographs, 6 x 9 Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-1492-9, $17.95 Also available in cloth: ISBN 978-0-7006-1287-1, $35.00 SELECTION OF THE HISTORY BOOK CLUB Few people would have expected bloodshed in Kansas Territory. After all, it had few slaves and showed few signs that slavery would even flourish. But civil war tore this territory apart in the 1850s and 60s, and “Bleeding Kansas” became a forbidding symbol for the nationwide clash over slavery that followed. Many free-state Kansans seemed to care little about slaves, and many proslavery Kansans owned not a single slave. But the failed promise of the Kansas-Nebraska Act—when fraud in local elections subverted the settlers’ right to choose whether Kansas would be a slave or free state—fanned the flames of war. Nicole Etcheson seeks to revise our understanding of this era by focusing on whites’ concerns over their political liberties. The first comprehensive account of “Bleeding Kansas” in more than thirty years, her study re-examines the debate over slavery expansion to emphasize issues of popular sovereignty rather than slavery’s moral or economic dimensions. The free-state movement was a coalition of settlers who favored black rights and others who wanted the territory only for whites, but all were united by the conviction that their political rights were violated by nonresident voting and by Democratic presidents’ heavy-handed administration of the territories. Etcheson argues that participants on both sides of the Kansas conflict believed they fought to preserve the liberties secured by the American Revolution and that violence erupted because each side feared the loss of meaningful self-governance. Bleeding Kansas is a gripping account of events and people—rabble-rousing Jim Lane, zealot John Brown, Sheriff Sam Jones, and others—that examines the social milieu of the settlers along with the political ideas they developed. As Etcheson demonstrates, the struggle over the political liberties of whites may have heightened the turmoil but led eventually to a broadening of the definition of freedom to include blacks. Her insightful re-examination sheds new light on this era and is essential reading for anyone interested in the ideological origins of the Civil War. “Makes a significant contribution to the historiography of the 1850s. . . . Will be a necessary starting point from now on for anyone seeking to learn what ‘bleeding Kansas’ was about and why it mattered.”—Journal of American History “Well written, phenomenally well researched, and a wonderful addition to the scholarship of this important period. . . . Highly recommended for anyone interested in the crucial role of Kansas in shaping the sectional ideologies that would lead eventually to Civil War.”—North & South “Etcheson breaks new ground and demonstrates that the violence of Bleeding Kansas forced free soilers to examine their own racial biases. The result was a significant ideological transformation. . . . Her book skillfully recreates this important egalitarian moment.” —Western Historical Quarterly “A thoughtful and well-written addition to the scholarship of Kansas and the coming of the Civil War. The book deserves a wide readership.”—Missouri Historical Review “A lively political history highly recommended for all libraries with collections in U.S. history.”—Choice “Prodigiously researched and boldly written, Etcheson’s study reopens the important story of ‘Bleeding Kansas’ in a thought provoking and compelling way.”--Michael Fellman, coauthor of That Terrible War: The Civil War and Its Aftermath “Kansas Territory did indeed bleed for freedom, but as Etcheson’s elegant, balanced, and deep account shows, the ‘slaves’ about whom combatants there were most passionate were white.”--Craig Miner, author of Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854–2000 “An ambitious, important, long-overdue, and very successful revisionist history of the organization of Kansas Territory. . . . Essential reading for anyone interested in the ideological origins of the Civil War.”--Kenneth Winkle, author of The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln NICOLE ETCHESON is Alexander M. Bracken Professor of American History at Ball State University and author of The Emerging Midwest: Upland Southerners and the Political Culture of the Old Northwest.   Home | About the Press | Recent Awards | Contact Us | Order New Books: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series Books in Print: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series ©2007 University Press of Kansas 2502 Westbrooke Circle, Lawrence, KS 66045-4444 Phone (785) 864-4155; Fax (785) 864-4586