Miami County, Kansas
When Kansas Territory was incorporated in 1854 due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was essentially repealed. Bordering the slave state of Missouri to its east, the county (Miami) and surrounding areas became a location for violence between abolitionists and the "Border Ruffians" of Missouri. These acts of violence and battles that took place primarily from 1854–1858, became known as border wars, and Kansas became known as Bleeding Kansas. Kansas Territory was not yet a state, and it was a battle on which forces would become dominant, slave or free. Many abolitionists came from other states to live in the area and ensure Kansas' entry as a state as a free, or anti-slavery one. The county's most notable abolitionist was John Brown, who moved to Osawatomie, making it the headquarters for him and his anti-slavery forces. As a result of this, Osawatomie, as well as the surrounding countryside and communities became the center for several battles and acts of violence during this period. Near Osawatomie are historic sites of John Brown, such as his famous Civil War lookout.
Kansas and Missouri
Missouri was formed out of the Missouri Territory as a slave state during the early 19th century. Northern states wanting to slow the westward spread of slavery hammered out the Missouri Compromise with southern states anxious to keep slavery legal; this compromise ensured that any state directly west of Missouri would be a free state where slavery would be illegal. Thirty-four years later, Kansas became a territory, but Congress passed the Kansas–Nebraska Act that allowed the territory's residents to vote on whether or not slavery would be allowed. Both pro-slavery and anti-slavery boosters flooded into Kansas, but due to the state's proximity to Missouri, most were pro-slavery men from Missouri. They successfully stacked the vote to form a temporary pro-slavery government. Tensions resulting from this would lead to Bleeding Kansas, a violent and bloody civil war that would foreshadow the much larger American Civil War. Violence and guerrilla warfare continued for several years thereafter until the American Civil War ended, with many unjust killings and lootings performed by partisans on either side of the border. This violence and war deeply harmed the relationship between the two areas, even after Kansas attained statehood and the war had ended.