Lawrence,Kansas (AKA Larryville) is a pretty little college town. Pretty old houses and buildings, pretty trees, pretty college kids. There's good restaurants, good shopping (yarn stores!), plenty to see and do. If you must live in Kansas, Lawrence is one of your better choices. Mama Hawk makes her home in Lawrence and 20 miles west is just about the right distance for a mother-in-law.

However, Lawrence has a bloody and violent history. Today is the 140th anniversary of Quantrill�s predawn raid and rampage of pretty Lawrence,Kansas.

Never heard of it? Allow me a brief history lesson:The great state of Kansas entered the union as a "free state,� in 1861 because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act that allowed the residents to decide themselves if their state would allow slavery. Settlers came from the North and the South with strong opinions about the evils of slavery. Across the border, Kansas� still backwards neighbor, Missouri, entered the Union as a slave state.

Both sides of the State Line (about 1 mile east of Chez Justin) sincerely believed that they were right, like most radical groups do....and of course, no one bothered to ask the Native Americans that were already living here how they felt about slavery.

The Jayhawk isn�t just a funny bird that shows up at KU basketball games. The Jayhawkers were an anti-slavery group that lead raids into Missouri to free slaves and steal mules. As you can imagine, this really pissed off the pro-slavery farmers. Kansas abolitionists and Missouri slave owners fought back and forth across the border for years.

In the years leading up to the War Between The States, the word "Kansas" was often prefixed by the adjective "Bloody", because of all the border wars.

Kansans are proud of our moral highroad, too. If you are from Kansas, Quantrill was a murderous terrorist. If you are from Missouri, Quantrill is a folk hero, much like Robin Hood. When I was in grade school, the kids born in Kansas would beat up the kids born in Missouri. Even one of our best microbreweries makes Free State Beer. They have great T-shirts featuring abolitionist John Brown drawing up a beer. See here

On August 21, 1863, Lawrence was attacked by a large group of guerrillas (including several outlaws who would later evolve into the notorious James Gang) led by William C. Quantrill. Lawrence was supposed to be protected by Union soldiers, but apparently the most that they did was send word back to KC that Lawrence was under attack.

The raiders systematically killed many of the town's men, dragging them out of their homes and murdering them in front of their wives and children. Homes and businesses were burned and the town was left in ruins. Although none of the women or children were killed, over 200 men and older boys were murdered The population of at that time of Lawrence was about 1,200 and there could not have been more than 400 men, a very large number being away in the army. The proportion of killed among these was vastly greater than in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War

There were left about eighty widows and 250 orphans.

As eye witness reported: "Such an appalling sight I hope never again to witness -- to see unarmed people who had surrendered and given up every dollar they had and treated them with every civility in hopes of saving their lives, shot down and killed -- often they were wounded -- to hear the shrieks and piteous entreaties of women and children -- to see wounded men lying helpless and dying -- their wives throwing themselves upon them to save them -- shot again through the folds of their wives dresses -- burns out every feeling of humanity for these demons."

Another witness reported "With demoniac yells the scoundrels flew hither and yon, wherever a man was to be seen, shooting him down like a dog. Men were called from their beds and murdered before the eyes of wives and children on their doorsteps. Tears, entreaties, prayers availed nothing. The fiends of hell were among us and under the demands of their revengeful black leader they satiated their thirst for blood with fiendish delight.

The lurid glare of burning houses joined with the oncoming sun to shed more light upon the awful scene. The torch was applied to every house that had been marked on the traitoress' map. Everything that could not be carried away as booty was doomed to destruction. Every business house on Massachusetts street save one was burned to the ground. No home that was picked out as the home of a soldier's family or that of a Union man was left if it could be burned.

Not only was the torch applied for the destruction of stores and homes, but in many instances the bullet-pierced bodies of their owners were consigned to the flames, in individual instances before life was extinct. Such scenes of barbarity have never been witnessed, even in the days of war, in recent centuries, except among the most degraded tribes of earth."

Horrible, huh? And right in my own backyard.

So, next time you flip on the teevee and shake your head over the unspeakable, senseless violence among the 'most degraded tribes on earth' that seem so far away, just remind yourself that like happiness being found in our own Kansas backyard, so can cruely of historic proportion.

Rabbi Jesus said it best 'Love Thy Neighbor'

4 People have told Dr JJ all about it