Pottawatomie Massacre

On the night of May 24-25, 1856, a small band of abolitionists led by John Brown murdered five pro-slavery men just north of here along Pottawatomie Creek. This massacre in "Bleeding Kansas" was one of the most famous events leading up to the American Civil War. Brown was later captured, tried and hanged for his unsuccessful raid on Harper's Ferry, (West) Virginia in 1859.