TOPEKA (KSNT) – On January 29, 1861, Kansas joined the United States as a free state. It was her 34th state to join the United States.
“Well, it’s Kansas Day. I have published about 25 articles on the history of .It continues to be my research interest.” Jonathan Earle, author, historian, dean of Roger Hadfield-Ogden Honors College, Louisiana State University , former professor at the University of Kansas.
“A lot of people don’t know that the birth of our state and the national fame of Abraham Lincoln as a politician are so closely related,” Earle said.
According to the Lecompton Historical Society, “Lecompton was the site of the first capital of Kansas. It was founded in 1854 on a 640-acre Wyandot Indian claim on the south bank of the Kansas River. Originally named Bald Eagles because of the large number of eagles that nested in the In 1855, the Territorial Legislature elected Lecompton as the sole official and permanent capital of Kansas Territory.”
Jonathan H. Earle is an author and historian of American politics and culture, focusing on the early Republic, particularly the anti-slavery movement and the partisan crises leading up to the Civil War. Earl currently serves as Dean of Louisiana State University’s Roger Hadfield He Ogden He Honors College, a position he has held since 2014. He previously attended the University of Kansas, where he taught for many years in the history department. During his time at the University of Kansas, he served as Associate Director of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Political Studies.
The Bleeding Kansas Program is a series of lectures and interpretations of violent territorial outbreaks and civil wars in Kansas and the country from 1854 to 1866.
Bleeding Kansas represents a period of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new Kansas territory in 1854. A total of about 55 people were murdered between 1855 and 1859.
Upcoming Dates and Topics for the Bleeding Kansas Series at Constitution Hall State Historic Site
- Sunday, February 5, “U.S. Army” responds to unrest in Kansas
- Sunday, February 12, “John Brown”, lit match in the tinder box
- Sunday, February 19th, “John Matthew”, Lecompton Fraud
- Sunday, February 26, “Steamboat on the Kansas River”
- Sunday, March 5, “1869 Conversation with General Robert E. Lee”
Click here for more information on the Bleeding Kansas series.