In U.S. history, "Border Ruffians" were pro-slavery sympathizers who infiltrated into Kansas from the slave state of Missouri in the 1850s to harass abolitionists and others who desired Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a "free state" (one in which slavery was forbidden). At one point, they razed the town of Lawrence, Kansas entirely. They also crossed the border into Kansas to vote on occasion, especially in favor of the "Lecampton Constitution", a proposed state constitution drafted by a convention of dubious validity which allowed for slavery. Pre-Colonial America For details, see the main Pre-Colonial America article. ... The Buxton Memorial Fountain, designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Millbank, Westminster, London. ... State nickname: The Sunflower State Other U.S. States Capital Topeka Largest city Wichita Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) Official languages None Area 82,277 mi²; 213,096 km² (15th) - Land 81,815 mi²; 211,900 km² - Water 462 mi²; 1,196 km² (0. ... Missouri, named after the Missouri Siouan Indian tribe meaning canoe, is a Southern state in the United States with Jefferson City as its capital. ... Events and Trends Technology Production of steel revolutionised by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Science Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward the theory of evolution... This article is about the abolition of slavery. ... Lawrence is a city located in Douglas County, Kansas. ... In the context of the United States of America, a state constitution is the governing document of a U.S. state, comparable to the U.S. Constitution which is the governing document of the United States. ...
See also: Jayhawks; Bleeding Kansas Jayhawks were radical abolitionist guerrillas involved in Bleeding Kansas, at which time the city of Lawrence, Kansas was razed to the ground by pro-slavery Missourians. ... Bleeding Kansas, sometimes referred to as Bloody Kansas and/or the Border War, was a sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory between roughly 1854 and 1856. ...
Border Ruffians.—The term "BorderRuffian" in early days was applied to those individuals on the western border of Missouri, who sought by illegal and violent means to determine the domestic institutions of Kansas Territory.
Some of these were men of ability who had occupied high positions of public trust and profit, but who during the border wars, agitated by the slavery question, unmindful of their dignity or honor, would throw off restraint and play the coarse part of the real ruffian.
While the main objects of the BorderRuffian chiefs were the overthrow and destruction of free-state men and the establishment of slavery in Kansas, the ruffianborder bands delighted in raiding towns, ransacking houses, stealing horses, and doing whatever they could that was annoying, exciting and rough.
BorderRuffians crossed into Kansas and affected the outcomes of several of these key elections by claiming to be settlers and intimidating valid voters.
BorderRuffians also voted in favor of the Lecompton Constitution (a proposed state constitution, drafted by a constitutional convention of somewhat dubious validity, that allowed slavery).
On December 1, 1855, a small army, composed mainly of BorderRuffians, laid siege to Lawrence, Kansas, in the nearly bloodless climax to the "Wakarusa War." On May 21, 1856, BorderRuffians in conjunction with pro-slavery Kansans and officers of the territorial legislature, again attacked Lawrence.
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