What is Pottawatomie massacre?
The '''Pottawatomie massacre''' happened on the [[night]] of May 24, 1856.<ref name=jbpkUV>{{cite web |url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/kansas/jbrown.html |title=John Brown and the Pottawatomie Killings |website=American Studies |publisher=University of Virginia |access-date=19 June 2016 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] and a number of [[wikt:volunteer|volunteer]] [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-Stater]]s attacked and murdered five men in a small [[Human settlement|settlement]] on the Pottawatomie Creek near [[Osawatomie, Kansas]]. The killings were particularly brutal. One by one, [[settler]]s were dragged from their [[home]]s and [[wikt:hack|hack]]ed to death with broad[[sword]]s and [[shooting|shot]].<ref name=pmUSHIST>{{cite web |url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/31d.asp |title=31d. The Pottawatomie Creek Massacre |website=Bloody Kansas |publisher=US History.org |access-date=19 June 2016}}</ref> The [[victim]]s were [[pro-slavery (United States)|pro-slavery]], but were not slave owners themselves.<ref name=pmUSHIST/> The murders were in response to pro-slavery [[Missouri]] [[Border Ruffian]]s who burned and [[Looting|looted]] [[Lawrence, Kansas]] three days earlier.<ref name=pmUSHIST/> It happened just two days after the [[Caning of Charles Sumner]], the [[Senator]] from [[Massachusetts]] on the floor of the [[United States Senate]].<ref name=pmUSHIST/> The Pottawatomie massacre was one of the many bloody episodes in Kansas preceding the [[American Civil War]]. It marked the beginning of the period called [[Bleeding Kansas]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/content/pottawatomie-massacre-0 |title=Pottawatomie Massacre |author=Chris Rein |publisher=Civil War on the Western Border |access-date=19 June 2016}}</ref> ==Background== === The Territory === In 1854, the [[Missouri Compromise]], which had [[wikt:restrict|restrict]]ed the [[wikt:expansion|expansion]] of [[Slavery in America|Slaver