EOTO #1

Out of all of the EOTO's, I thought the most interesting event was Bleeding Kansas and Bleeding Sumner.

Bleeding Kansas was caused because of the clashes between pro and anti slavery activists due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. I did not know that there were two capitals during this time. One capital was Lecompton. This was the pro slavery capital. Topeka was the anti slavery capital.

Bleeding Kansas
What's interesting to me is the idea of popular sovereignty. I think that on an objective level, popular sovereignty was the correct concept to apply when deciding if slavery should be legal in a state or not. However, the objectively best solution is not always the best solution when used. Popular sovereignty caused riots and deaths of US citizens. Splitting the states into a slave and free state without letting the people decide would have been the best solution in hindsight. It is just interesting to me because I feel that many times the best solution on paper is not the best solution in practice.


Even more interesting is the fact that John Brown killed 5 people with his sons. This sounds like a psychopathic family from an episode of Criminal Minds. Brown and his sons killed 5 settlers just 3 days after the first riots and acts of violence in Kansas. This entire time period was a chaotic nightmare.
Staying with the theme of violence, Bleeding Sumner was an event in correspondence with Bleeding Kansas. Just 1 day after the first riots in Kansas, Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican gave a speech. This speech harshly condemned slave owners, and attacked many people. One of the people the speech attacked was Preston Brooks’ cousin. Preston Brooks was a Democrat from South Carolina. Two days after this speech was given, Brooks attacked Sumner. He caned him half to death. 

Bleeding Sumner: The North's Perspective
This fight reminded me of middle school, mainly when you and your friend would be making fun of each other but someone took it too far and would keep on going. This fight also reminded me of modern day radical left ideology, where if you do not agree with me, I will not have a civil discussion with you. I will instead condemn you and do what is in my power to silence you. It is a very scary idea to know that a senator beat another senator because they disagreed. To me, this would scare many Americans at the time. If two senators could no longer hold a civil discussion, what would the citizens do? To me, the events of Bleeding Kansas and Bleeding Sumner showed that the nation needed to have a Civil War 
in order to solve the issue of slavery.

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