The battle is cited as one incident of "Bleeding Kansas" and a contributing factor leading up to the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865.

In 1854, the U.S. Congress had passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which stipulated that the residents of these territories would decide whether they wished to enter the Union as a slave or free state.

In response to the massacre, Pate, recently granted the title of "Deputy United States Marshal", set out with a pro-slavery militia to either capture or kill John Brown.

At Palmyra, they successfully took several prisoners, but at Prairie City they suffered two wounded and retreated back to Pate's camp.

At about 10pm, Brown's party set out to find Pate's men, and discovered their camp in a grove near the town of Black Jack the next morning.

After a period of sustained fire by the Free-State forces, Pate offered a conditional surrender in which they would retain their arms, which Brown rejected.

In 1970, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Baldwin City, Baker University professor and playwright Don Mueller (not to be confused with the baseball player of the same name) and Phyllis E. Braun, Business Manager, produced a musical play entitled The Ballad of Black Jack to tell the story of the events that led up to the battle.