For six years before the Civil War, the Kansas Territory (1854-1861) was a national battleground over the question of slavery and its looming westward expansion. The antislavery North and pro slavery South fought with guns and the ballot box to win Kansas.

Kansas “free state” pioneers, emigrated from the northern states, defied laws imposed on them by pro slavery forces.  These included punishment by death in aid of people escaping slavery.

Kansas “conductors” helped people escaping slavery on the Jim Lane Trail to freedom in the North and Canada.  Although the trail was known for its operation from Topeka, Kansas to Civil Bend, Iowa it was fed by routes from across the Kansas River valley and at times veered west into the Kansas Flint Hills.

Please download this   PDF version  (2.4 Mb)  of a recent brochure about the Kansas Underground Railroad.

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