Oct 10, 2002 - Sale 1946

Sale 1946 - Lot 155

Price Realized: $ 3,220
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 5,000
STREETER'S COPIES OF BLEEDING KANSAS RARITIES (KANSAS.) Charter of the Stubbs * By-Laws of the Stubbs * Constitution of the Stubbs. Together, 3 broadsides relating to the formation of a free-soil volunteer military company. 285x235 to 425x250 mm; folds, edge tears; Streeter's copies, two with his booklabel. [Topeka?, 1855-58]
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Additional Details



As violence threatened to erupt in Kansas following the fraudulent election of 1854 in which pro-slavery advocates recruited Missourians to stuff the ballot boxes, a group of free-soil Kansans formed a volunteer military company in April 1855 to protect Lawrence (a free soil stronghold) and the people of Kansas. Armed with Sharps rifles by Northern supporters, the militia, joined by John Brown and several other similar companies, defended Lawrence in November 1855 from 1500 invading pro-slavery Missourians. In January 1856, the free soilers established their own territorial government at Topeka in opposition to the fraudulent one at Lecompton. It seems likely that these broadsides, which officially establish the military company, were printed by a government printer at Topeka. Streeter Sale IV:2015 [these copies]; AII, Kansas 197, 196, 198 (recording these copies and one other set). No copies have appeared at auction since the Streeter Sale.<