This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
Free State Emigrant Aid and the Kansas Nebraska Bill
The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 drew national focus to Kansas, inviting pro slavery and Free State factions. Eli Thayer funded Emigrant Aid to settle Kansas with non slaveholders, Amos Lawrence led trustees, and Massachusetts aid teams established Lawrence after routes via St Louis and Kansas City. First settlers arrived July 1854, with land plots and an organized union plan to equalize ownership and fund settlement.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Massachusetts
Lawrence
Territory
Kansas
Missouri
North
Eli Thayer
Worcester
Mass
Kansas-Nebraska
Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Association
Thayer
Amos Lawrence
Emigrant Aid Association
Patrick Jackson
The
New England Emigrant Aid Company
Nebraska
J. M. S. Williams
Charles H. Branscomb
Holyoke
Charles Robinson
Fitchburg
Aid Company
St. Louis
Robinson
Kansas City
Blossom
Mount Oread
Old North College
Wakarusa
Amos Adams Lawrence
Lawrance
Kan
New England Emigrant Aid Society
Raicom
Charles Branscomb
Squatters ‘Association
Bluejacket
Wakarusa Crossing
John Wakefield
Kanwaka
Wrence Association
Astor “House
Moses’ Pomeroy
John Mailey
S. Y. Lum
A. D