USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The sack of Lawrence was a direct act of violent aggression by slave-owning southern “fire eaters.” The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company offered to protect settlers headed to Kansas by sending them in organized groups to Lawerence, where the Company had built reception facilities.

Detailed explanation-2: -The sacking of Lawrence occurred on May 21, 1856, when pro-slavery settlers, led by Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones, attacked and ransacked Lawrence, Kansas, a town which had been founded by anti-slavery settlers from Massachusetts who were hoping to make Kansas a free state.

Detailed explanation-3: -May 21, 1856 Lawrence’s leaders were supportive of the free-state cause. A series of events led to the Sack of Lawrence on May 21, 1856. Douglas County Sheriff Samuel Jones, a proslavery supporter, was attempting to arrest an antislavery man on April 23, 1856, when he was shot in the back.

Detailed explanation-4: -In retaliation for the “sack” of the free-state town of Lawrence on May 21, 1856, the abolitionist John Brown led a brutal attack on a pro-slavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek on the night of May 24.