Battle of Osawatomie
Rather than abolishing slavery in the United States, abolitionists turned to the politically and economically easier task of preventing its spread.
The Slave Power states found this unacceptable: American slavery, they claimed, was kind and healthy for both the individual and the country; Northern white workers, they suggested, might want to consider voluntary enslavement.
The Battle of Black Jack followed in early June, ending in the anti-slavery forces' favor and making Brown a threat in the eyes of the Border ruffians.
The town of Osawatomie, an abolitionist settlement on the edge of the Marais des Cygnes River in present-day Miami County, Kansas, had been the victim of a pro-slavery raid early in the summer of 1856, and many of the original residents had fled east.
Martin White then wrote to the Governor for Militia and led a movement on Osawatomie and met Fredrick Brown in the road.
By this time, he was getting very close to me, and threw his hand to his revolver; to save my own life I shot him down.White's bullet went straight through Brown's heart, killing him and making him the first casualty of the Battle of Osawatomie.
[1] Having heard about his son's death, John Brown rushed from his camp toward Osawatomie, gathering several dozen men to meet the Missourian invaders.
The fighting began when Reid advanced his forces in long rows toward the woods in which Brown and his men were located.
In the end, the men under John W. Reid went through Osawatomie and burned almost all of its buildings; the three they spared were full of women and children.
When he reemerged from the brush following the final departure of the Missourians that day, John Brown saw the charred settlement and reportedly said to his son Jason: God sees it.
Along with his other adventures over the following years, up to the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, Osawatomie made him into an increasingly notorious figure.
In Kansas generally, there was a distinct escalation of violence between pro- and anti-slavery forces following the Battle of Osawatomie.
The acting governor of the Kansas Territory at the time, Daniel Woodson, declared the region to be in rebellion and called on citizens to restore law and order, to which the Free-Staters took great offense.
In response, the Border ruffians built up their own forces, and with the presence of the U.S. Army being largely ineffective, open violence continued.
