USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Proslavery Missourians who crossed the border to vote in Kansas became known as border ruffians. These men gained the advantage by winning the territorial elections, most likely through voter fraud, intimidation, and illegal vote counting.

Detailed explanation-2: -In the fall of 1854, Senator David Atchison of Missouri led over 1, 700 men from Missouri into Kansas to vote for their pro-slavery representative. These were the infamous “border ruffians, ” who threatened to shoot, burn and hang those opposed to slavery.

Detailed explanation-3: -Border Ruffians Thousands of Missouri residents crossed over the border into Kansas in 1855 to vote in the election to establish a territorial legislature. The opposition called these southerners Border Ruffians because they became violent in their support of slavery.

Detailed explanation-4: -Northerners and other anti-slavery settlers refused to accept this government and set up their own. Some of these Free Staters, known as “jayhawkers, ” armed themselves in preparation for clashes with pro-slavery forces.

Detailed explanation-5: -"Tragic Prelude, ” a painting by John Steuart Curry, depicts John Brown leading the anti-slavery movement in Kansas Territory before the Civil War. The years of 1854-1861 were a turbulent time in the Kansas Territory.