"Bleeding Kansas" Chautauqua Elderhostel programs planned for June

Emporia State University is offering two unique Elderhostel programs in June commemorating the “Bleeding Kansas” era of our state’s history. These programs will be in conjunction with the “Bleeding Kansas: Where the Civil War Began” Chautauquas offered in four communities by the Kansas Humanities Council.

The week-long programs will be held in four different communities during the month of June: Junction City, June 4-8; Colby, June 11-15; Fort Scott, June 18-22; and Lawrence, June 25-29. The ESU Elderhostel Program is offering the full week-long events as an inclusive package at Fort Scott or Lawrence, which includes 6 nights in a motel, and all meals as well as field trips to historical sites in the area.

Chautauquas were a popular form of community learning in the late 1800s and early 1900s, combining informal education and entertainment often presented under a large tent in the out of doors. Theodore Roosevelt once described Chautauqua as the “most American thing in America.”

The tour, titled “Bleeding Kansas: Where the Civil War Began" chronicles historical events following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which opened the Kansas Territory for white settlement and gave settlers the right to vote whether the territory would enter the Union as a free or slave state.

The rush was on to claim Kansas, pitting free-state settlers against Missouri Border Ruffians, abolitionists against defenders of slavery, neighbors against neighbors, town against town. The rhetoric was hot, the battles bloody, and the politics were no-holds-barred.

“Bleeding Kansas” aptly describes the seven-year struggle that led to Kansas entering the Union as a free state January 29, 1861. The Kansas men joined the Union Army in large numbers. By the war’s end, Kansas “where the Civil War began” suffered the highest mortality rate of any of the Union states.

Each evening under an old-fashioned tent in a park, attendees will hear these famous historical figures tell in their own words how their lives and actions affected the Kansas Territory and the future of America. During the day, persons may attend a breakfast meeting with the different re-enactors or workshops that are scheduled throughout the week.

The historical figures to be portrayed are

• Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, who toured the Kansas Territory speaking against slavery

• John Brown, firey abolitionist who came to Kansas determined to end slavery, his raid on Harper’s Ferry, Va., in 1859 led to his hanging, but he is forever identified with Kansas and the abolitionist cause

• Frederick Douglass, former slave, national abolitionist leader, who published the “North Star”, an antislavery newspaper

• David Atchison, U.S. Senator from Missouri, who worked to bring Kansas into the Union as a slave state, a Border Ruffian who led raids into the territory

• Clarina Nichols, early champion of women’s rights, temperance advocate, abolitionist, and conductor on the Underground Railroad

• Stephen Douglas, U.S. Senator from Illinois, sponsor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act whose debates with Lincoln on the extension of slavery to the territories electrified the nation.

Elderhostel is a program offering noncredit educational programs for seniors age 55 and older. More information and enrollment forms are available at www.elderhostel.org.

Additional information about the Kansas Chautauqua programs can be found at www.kansashumanities.org and/or about Emporia State’s Elderhostel programs and costs by contacting Ed Butler, Emporia State University Elderhostel Coordinator by email at butlered@emporia.edu or by phone at (620) 341-5625.

Last Updated July 2, 2007>