Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, sometimes referred to as Bloody Kansas, was a sequence of violent events that took place in Kansas Territory between roughly 1854 and 1856. The territory bordered Missouri, a state where slavery was allowed, and the area became a battleground for pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces who fought over whether the resulting state of Kansas should be a slave state or a free state.A few famous people involved with Bleeding Kansas are John Brown and Silas Soule.
It has been argued by some historians that the violence during this period, was the true beginning of the American Civil War.