Bleeding Kansas | The Pottawatomie Massacre | 2
American History Tellers
Audible
4.6 • 19K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2021
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the night of May 24th, 1856, radical abolitionist John Brown and seven of his followers crept along the banks of Kansas’s Pottawatomie Creek and stormed a proslavery settlement. They dragged five men from their cabins and killed them in cold blood.
Soon, Brown’s name was splashed across the nation’s newspapers, making him a lightning rod for controversy. He would exploit his notoriety to escalate his crusade against slavery, taking his guerrilla war to a new theater: the slaveholding South.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music, |
| 0:05.6 | download the app today. |
| 0:09.4 | Imagine it's May 23rd, 1856, early in the morning, and you're in the woods near the |
| 0:23.4 | Ottawa Creek in Kansas, sitting around a breakfast campfire with your brothers and a few |
| 0:28.1 | other men. |
| 0:29.1 | The conversation is subdued. |
| 0:31.4 | There's only one thing on everyone's mind, the violent attack on the town of Lawrence |
| 0:35.7 | yesterday by pro-slavery border ruffians. |
| 0:39.5 | Hundreds of men rode in and shot up the town. |
| 0:42.0 | It's the latest clash in the ongoing battle over the future of Kansas. |
| 0:45.8 | The battle you fear your anti-slavery side is losing. |
| 0:49.9 | One of the men pokes at the sausage he's roasting over the fire and shakes his head. |
| 0:54.1 | So is this what we can expect now for every free state settlement to be burned to the ground. |
| 0:59.8 | You throw a stick into the fire and frustration. |
| 1:02.1 | I'm just sorry we didn't get to Laurence sooner to mount a real defense. |
| 1:06.9 | You look up to see your father emerge from the trees. |
| 1:10.1 | Even though he's gray and walks with a slight stoop now, he hasn't lost the steely courage |
| 1:15.0 | you remember from your childhood. |
| 1:17.0 | If anything, he's grown more determined and more zealous. |
| 1:20.5 | Father, there you are. |
| 1:22.4 | Join us for some breakfast. |
| 1:24.1 | He shakes his head. |
... |
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