“We’re not in Kansas anymore” said Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” one of the most iconic lines from early Hollywood. For thousands of years Kansas had been home to a plethora of Native American tribes who would hunt Bison and today Kansas is best known for its agriculture, and probably more infamous for its tornadoes.
On this day January 29th, in 1861, Kansas became the 34th state in the U.S. One might think this is an arbitrary piece of information in U.S. history, but nothing could be further from the truth. 1861 was a mere three months prior to the Civil War breaking out at the Battle of Fort Sumter, and it was during this crucial time that Kansas could either enter as a free state or as a slave state.
In 1854, when the U.S. approved for Kansas to be settled, there was a huge influx of both pro-slavery from Missouri and anti-slavery abolitionists, both came with the hopes of swinging the State to support the ideology. Keep in mind that the states were civil with each other and the war had yet to emerge. The strife between these two groups led to bloodshed in what was titled “Bleeding Kansas.”