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'Stark Mad Abolitionists' is a dramatic and gripping account of the battle over slavery fought in Kansas

Robert K. Sutton brilliantly brings history to life in this thoroughly researched and passionately recounted story.

The words 鈥淏leeding Kansas鈥� trigger memories from high-school history. Those who paid attention in class recall the violence had something to do with the issue of slavery in America.

Robert K. Sutton brilliantly brings academic memories to life in Stark Mad Abolitionists. Furthermore, readers of this thoroughly researched and passionately recounted story will come to understand the profoundly significant history of Lawrence, Kan., and care deeply about the drama of its founding. It鈥檚 a drama that involves blood, slavery, and people willing to sacrifice everything to oppose it.

The story begins in late spring 1854.聽 鈥淏oston was in an uproar,鈥� Mr. Sutton writes, because an escaped slave named Anthony Burns had been captured by his 鈥渙wner.鈥� Two thousand federal troops escorted Burns to a boat that would take him back to Virginia.

Wealthy businessman Amos Adams Lawrence was among those who were angry. He wrote to his uncle that when he awakened one morning, he had become a 鈥渟tark mad鈥� abolitionist.

Lawrence quickly involved himself in the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, an organization created to encourage and enable people opposed to slavery to move to the territory of Kansas. It was hoped that sufficient antislavery advocates would settle there to vote for it to become a 鈥渇ree state.鈥�

Far from being 鈥渟tark mad,鈥� Lawrence himself was a generous man of quiet temperament. Ironically, he and his family 鈥渕ade their fortunes from buying, selling, and producing textiles, mostly made of cotton鈥� picked by slaves in the South.

Sutton tells how Lawrence, as treasurer of the Emigrant Aid Company, paid a large portion of company costs, to the point where his own resources were dangerously depleted. Under his direction, a promising tract of land was found 鈥渘ear where the Wakarusa River entered the Kansas River, about forty miles west of the Missouri line.鈥� On Aug. 1, 1854, the first settlers camped there. In recognition of Lawrence鈥檚 enormous contribution, the new town was named 鈥淟awrence.鈥澛�

Early on, 鈥淸t]he Emigrant Aid Company clearly had not prepared for the settlers it was encouraging to emigrate to Kansas.鈥澛燤any quickly returned to home, dismayed by the rigors of a community where homes initially were made from straw.聽

Anti-slavery advocates also settled elsewhere in Kansas. But Lawrence was ground zero for some of the most important and dramatic events in the effort to make Kansas a free state. My biggest quibble with 鈥淪tark Mad鈥� is the author didn鈥檛 include a map; location and proximity play a big role in these events.

Nonetheless, Sutton knows how to present history. He鈥檚 an experienced writer and a former chief historian of the National Park Service. With 鈥淪tark Mad,鈥� he鈥檚 created not some bland historic site handout but a searing chronicle. Sutton tears back the curtain of time to reveal vivid images of Lawrence as well as the rest of Kansas and its people during the 1850s and the Civil War.

Sutton shows how the endurance of the people of Lawrence was tested. The town was dangerously close to Missouri, which was firmly and sometimes violently pro-slavery. In 1856, for example, less than two years after Lawrence鈥檚 founding, hundreds of troops and pro-slavery volunteers from Missouri destroyed much of the town.

Missouri鈥檚 influence went far beyond border hostilities. When the territorial legislature was to be elected, thousands of pro-slavery Missouri men crossed into Kansas to vote, threatening violence against election officials. This pro-slavery legislature was able for several years to circumvent the true wishes of Kansans. But in 1861 Kansas became the 34th American state 鈥� a free state.

The fieriest segment of Sutton鈥檚 book takes place during the Civil War, a conflict during which Kansans heartily fought and died for the Union side. William Clarke Quantrill, the commander of a large force of 鈥渂ushwhackers鈥� 聽鈥� Confederate guerrilla fighters 鈥� brutally attacked and destroyed much of Lawrence.

Sutton鈥檚 writing is orderly and thoughtful. And Sutton doesn鈥檛 dramatize this grisly episode. But neither does he spare us the nightmare details of the murder of approximately 200 Lawrence men and boys.

鈥淭he devastation was horrendous, but the outpouring of generosity was remarkable,鈥� Sutton comments. With help from places like St. Louis, and people like Amos Lawrence, the community rebuilt.聽

Two years later, the war was over and 鈥淸p]eace also brought prosperity.鈥� Lawrence鈥檚 stalwart Congregational minister, Rev. Richard Cordley, commented that 鈥渨e could retire at night without fear of alarm, and work by day without fear of attack.... One hardly needs to say that we enjoyed it as few people enjoy peace and quiet."