This incident became known as the Pottawatomie massacre. Three days later, a band of men, led by John Brown and comrade Captain Shore, executed five pro-slavery men with broadswords at Pottawatomie Creek. The next day, Congressman Preston Brooks from South Carolina physically attacked Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the Senate chambers. On May 21, 1856, Henry Clay Pate participated with a posse of 750 pro-slavery forces in the sacking of Lawrence. As a result, pro- and antislavery groups had frequent clashes culminating in the Battle of Black Jack.

Organized groups from the North sent thousands of abolitionist supporters to Kansas in an attempt to tip the balance in favor of free state advocates, to counter settlement from pro-slavery supporters from Missouri. This doctrine became known as popular sovereignty. Congress had passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which stipulated that the residents of these territories would decide whether they wished to enter the Union as a slave or free state. The battle is cited as one incident of ' Bleeding Kansas' and a contributing factor leading up to the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865. The Battle of Black Jack took place on June 2, 1856, when antislavery forces, led by the noted abolitionist John Brown, attacked the encampment of Henry C.

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