Existing comment:
Scorning Man's Law: John Brown in Kansas
Incidents between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas became increasingly violent during the mid-1850s. By May 1856, pro-slavery forces had rigged elections, terrorized anti-slavery settlers, burned the city of Lawrence and killed many free-state advocates. John Brown, determined to retaliate, led his militia company, the Liberty Guards, along Pottawatomie Creek in late May. There the armed band killed five pro-slavery settlers, none of whom owned slaves.
John Doyle, a survivor of an attack by Brown and his men at Pottawatomie Creek, reported:
I found my father and one brother, William, lying dead in the road about two hundred yards from the house. I saw my other brother lying dead on the ground about one hundred and fifty yards from the house... his fingers were cut off, and his arms were cut off; his head was cut open; there was a hole in his breast. William's head was cut open, and a hole was in his jaw, as though it was made by a knife, and a hole was in his side. My father was shot in the forehead and stabbed in the breast. |