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Free-Stater was the name given those settlers in Kansas Territory
Kansas Territory

The Territory of Kansas was an organized territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when Kansas became the 34th U.S....
 during the Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas, sometimes referred to in history of Kansas as Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving Free-Stater s and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S....
 era in the 1850s who opposed the extension of slavery to Kansas.

Many Free-Staters were abolitionists
Abolitionism

File:BLAKE10.JPGAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical religious groups con...
 from New England
New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
, in part because there was an organized emigration of settlers to Kansas Territory arranged by the New England Emigrant Aid Company beginning in 1854. Other Free-Staters were abolitionists who came to Kansas Territory from Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
, Iowa
Iowa

The State of Iowa is a U.S. state in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It is bordered by Minnesota to the north, Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, and Missouri to the south....
, and other midwestern states
Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four geographic regions within the United States of America that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau....
.

However, the majority of Free-Staters, regardless of where they were from, did not claim to be abolitionists at the outset.






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Free-Stater was the name given those settlers in Kansas Territory
Kansas Territory

The Territory of Kansas was an organized territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when Kansas became the 34th U.S....
 during the Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas, sometimes referred to in history of Kansas as Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving Free-Stater s and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S....
 era in the 1850s who opposed the extension of slavery to Kansas.

Many Free-Staters were abolitionists
Abolitionism

File:BLAKE10.JPGAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical religious groups con...
 from New England
New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
, in part because there was an organized emigration of settlers to Kansas Territory arranged by the New England Emigrant Aid Company beginning in 1854. Other Free-Staters were abolitionists who came to Kansas Territory from Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
, Iowa
Iowa

The State of Iowa is a U.S. state in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It is bordered by Minnesota to the north, Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, and Missouri to the south....
, and other midwestern states
Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four geographic regions within the United States of America that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau....
.

However, the majority of Free-Staters, regardless of where they were from, did not claim to be abolitionists at the outset. Instead, the official Free-State line supported the idea of excluding all African-Americans from the future state of Kansas
Kansas

The State of Kansas is a Midwestern U.S. state in the Central United States of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the United States "Heartland"....
 and did not advocate the abolition of slavery nationwide. What united the Free-Staters was a desire to defeat the proslavery Southern
Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
 settlers in Kansas Territory on the question of whether Kansas would be admitted to the Union as a slave state. (The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries....
 of 1854 had left the question open to the settlers in the territory.)

Pro-slavery Southerners in Kansas Territory painted all Free-Staters as abolitionists in order to motivate the South's opposition. However, Eli Thayer
Eli Thayer

Eli Thayer was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1857 to 1861. Thayer was born in Mendon, Massachusetts, Massachusetts....
 and other New England Company leaders denied that they were seeking to abolish slavery, and the failed Topeka Constitution
Topeka Constitution

The Topeka Constitutional Convention was held in October 1855 in the town of Topeka, Kansas, Kansas Territory. This convention was the first effort to establish Kansas under a state constitution; it drafted the Topeka Constitution that was approved by Free-Stater voters in Kansas on December 15, 1855....
 drafted by the Free-Staters in 1855 would have excluded any African-American – slave or free – from settling in Kansas.

As time passed and the violence in Bleeding Kansas escalated, abolitionists became ascendent in the Free-State movement. In 1858, the Free-Staters proposed a second constitution, the Leavenworth Constitution
Leavenworth Constitution

The Leavenworth Constitution was one of four Kansas state constitutions proposed during the era of Bleeding Kansas. The Leavenworth Constitution was drafted by a convention of Free-Staters, and was the most progressive of the four proposed constitutions....
, which banned slavery. (This constitution also failed.)