Andreas, History of Kansas, County Histories. Cordley, Pioneering in Kansas. Hunt, Kansas History for Children. Historical Collections, vol. IX, pp. 33, 126; vol. XII, p. 353. Mrs. Robinson, Kansas――Its Interior and Exterior Life. Ropes, Six Months in Kansas.
1. What had been the chief interest of the Kansas people during the Territorial period?
2. What were the chief reasons for people coming to Kansas?
3. Discuss the conditions under which the pioneers lived, including travel, roads, bridges, fences, money, social life, houses, furniture, food, and health.
4. Give an account of the drouth of 1859-’60. How long did it last?
5. What was the population of Kansas in 1860?
6. What was the effect of the drouth on Kansas?
7. What have you read of pioneer conditions other than in this book?
8. What have you learned about early Kansas conditions from talking with people?
9. What new burden came with the beginning of statehood?
=Beginning of the Civil War.= Just before Kansas was admitted several of the southern states seceded from the Union. The trouble between the North and the South had reached the point where it could no longer be compromised. Other states seceded, and when, on April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired upon, the Civil War had begun.
=Part Taken by Kansas in the Civil War.= A state that had just passed through nearly seven years of Territorial struggle closing with a famine would hardly be expected to take an active part in a great war, but the Kansas people had been battling over the slavery question, and, being deeply interested in the outcome, were ready to take up arms in defense of the principle of freedom. Every call for soldiers to defend the Union was liberally responded to in Kansas. This State furnished more soldiers in proportion to its population than did any other State. During the four years of the war Kansas furnished a few more than twenty thousand men, nearly four thousand more than were asked for, and all of them were volunteers. The poverty in the Kansas homes made it especially hard for families to be left unprovided for, and as much honor is due the women who stayed at home to work as is due the men who marched away to fight. The Kansas soldiers did duty on many battle-fields, and so conducted themselves as to bring much credit to their State. During the war Kansas was exposed to three lines of danger; invasions by the regular Confederate army, attacks by the unorganized border troops, and Indian raids on the frontier.