On this day, abolitionist John Brown led an anti-slavery militia in a violent raid on a pro-slavery settlement near Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. In retaliation for the earlier sacking of Lawrence, Brown and his followers executed five pro-slavery settlers in what became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre. This marked a turning point in the escalating conflict over slavery in the Kansas Territory, a prelude to the wider violence of the Civil War. Though controversial, Brown’s actions drew national attention to the moral crisis of slavery and galvanized both abolitionist and pro-slavery forces in what became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
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