20 Comments

I grew up in Kansas. This is the shit that should be taught in the schools yet never is. Thank you for adding to my knowledge of just how fucked up people are. I'm currently appalled at the legislative push against the LGBTQ+ community and what is being done to women's rights to control their own bodies. Maybe if they taught more of this fucked up shit in school, we wouldn't be turning into the new nazi world headquarters!

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I'm literally right here in the area (not far from Lawrence) and I don't remember learning this, either! Nor did I when I lived across the border in Missouri. I do know now that that seems to be why we "hate" each other across the MO/KS border here, though. 🤪 What's saddest, though, is when you see people flying a damn Confederate flag here on the Kansas side. 😑

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I grew up in Manhattan, KS. My youngest brother got a tattoo with a confederate flag while he was in the navy. I'm pretty sure it was because he was a "country" boy despite the fact that we grew up in town and I don't think he's ever riden a horse! When he got it 25ish years ago, I didn't think of it as racist either. Now, at age 50, I cringe to think how oblivious I was. On the other hand, there wasn't the access to information that is available now. The internet has changed our world in such depth that I don't recognize it from when I was a kid. My son is 8 and is completely confused when I talk about my childhood compared to his. I just wish the world was using the internet to be better instead of turning into trolls.

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Hey, Kansas has always had its bright spots. Even during the dark years of the Brownback administration. Missouri has always been a shit hole. Lawrence is one of the most livable cities in America. I don’t care for the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City but it’s not like quality government and quality of life is offered on the Missouri side. I understand why people live there.

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Having grown up initially in KCMO, can concur, I am happier here in Kansas! I have looked at Lawrence as a future option. 🙂

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Enjoy! Any place that has 20 to 25,000 college kids always has some fun things going on.

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In The South, people argued that slavery was in the bible, so that made it okey-fuck-n-dokey. We need a John Brown today to get rid of MAGAts.

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No. We need a Julius Caesar or Buddika.

You say that as if the Democratic Party offers good governance. Far far far from the case. Slightly better than an ongoing criminal enterprise is not that.

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God damn, if I had a teacher like this in High School I would have lived a very different life.

Bravo James!

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Thanks for recommending this stack - I have learned to love history over the years & always love finding out new things - the South where I was raised (Kentucky) was sort of a Sweden in the Civil War - but were ready to go Confederate way just before it ended. At least that is what we were taught. The train station in Paducah had tracks on one side for the southern soldiers & the other side the northern soldiers.

I be will gladly learn more here! Thanks again Geoff

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Being from WV, I wouldn’t mind you explaining it a little more about Harper’s Ferry!

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I wonder who Butler and Sumner counties are named after. Proslavery senators?

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I grew up just across the border in Missouri touching the Iowa border. Every courthouse in Iowa has a statue of Ulysses S Grant in the lawn. Missouri’s always been a shit hole.

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WTG sir. I learned a little about the history you tell of so very well when I visited Harper’s Ferry some years ago. Our inalienable rights cost a lot of lives. Keep on… billserle.com.

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There are only four buildings that survive the fire during the Cantrell raid and raising of the town.

You neglected to mention that most of the slavery loving lowlife douche canoe just came across the border from Missouri. We’ve sucked for a long time.

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This is why your book was one of my grandchildren’s Christmas gifts. (They get quite a few) xxxxxx

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I grew up an hour from the John Brown Farm near Lake Placid, NY, where his family kept a farm in a community of free Black family farms, called Timbuktu. It's a park, museum, gravesite, and memorial now, and I *never knew this* from school. No field trip. Bleeding Kansas and Harper's Ferry were mentioned as lead-ups to the Civil War, but that was it.

Last summer, age 45, I learned about the farm and (living even closer now) took my family to the site. It was a very moving experience for me. If you're anywhere near, I recommend a visit.

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Born in Kansas, near where Paper Moon was filmed, though I was raised in Colorado, we have a family cemetery that dates back to the early 1800s. My grandparents left during the Depression, but faithfully returned. Tis' sad to see that it hasn't learned from its own history. For a State with a large population of individuals (German /Russian) who fled their own countries for a better life, as well as many Black who fled the South after the Civil War, you'd like to believe they were wiser to injustices currently underway.

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Wow. You hit upon an interesting fact that is a very real contributor to the dynamic of our less than first world existence. This is not an opinion about beliefs, origin or ethnic background this is simply a truism statistically so concerning American citizens. Marketers need to know this kind of thing.

The top two demographics that are resistant to change or try something new are those of German dissent any practice Catholicism.

That leaves you to conclude that “German Catholics” well…….

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Speaking of Bleeding Kansas, I now live in one of the areas where the feared "Baldknobbers" and "Anti-Baldnobbers" (among other vigilante groups) held sway. They "enforced" whatever they felt like, usually under the cover of "enforcing morals," (sound familiar?), pro or anti colored people, slavery, etc.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Knobbers

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