Lawrence

Lawrence was established in 1854 by the Emigrant Aid Company, a New England organization formed to prevent the new Kansas territory from becoming a slave state. When the first legislature enacted the so-called Bogus Laws with severe penalties for opposing slavery Lawrence was the center of Free-State resistance. Free-State newspapers here further antagonized Proslavery officers. Late in 1855 1500 Proslavery men gathered to attack the town. Free-State men came to its defense, among them John Brown. Bloodshed was averted by a "Peace Treaty." The next spring, however, a "sheriff's posse" of several hundred Missourians burned houses, destroyed two newspaper Presses and fired a cannon into the Eldridge Hotel on the pretext that it was an Abolition Fort., During the Civil War Lawrence was a haven for runway slaves and was held responsible for Union raids into Missouri. On August 21, 1863, Quantrill and a band of guerrillas ravaged the town and killed nearly 150 men. Monuments to these victims and other historical markers may be seen in the city. Lawrence is home of the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Institute.