Volume 14 , Issue 6

Jayhawkers of Kansas

What were the Jayhawkers? And . . . What was their prominence just before the American Civil War in Kansas?

Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, states, "Jayhawkers is a term that came to prominence just before the American Civil War in Bleeding Kansas, where it was adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause. These bands, known as Jayhawkers, were guerrilla fighters who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri known at the time as Border Ruffians. After the Civil War, the Jayhawker become synonymous with the people of Kansas. Today the term is a nickname for native born Kansan."

The origin of the term "Jayhawker" is uncertain, but some think the term was adopted as a nickname by a group of emigrants traveling to California in 1849. It could go back as far as the Revolutionary War, when it was reportedly used to describe a group associated with the American patriot John Jay.

It became a part of the Missouri-Kansas border in about 1858, during the Kansas territorial period. One early Kansas history contained this succinct characterization of the Jayhawkers:

"confederated at first for defense against pro-slavery outrages, but ultimately falling more or less completely into the vocation of robbers and assassins, they have received the name -- whatever its rigid may be -- of jayhawkers."

Other historians of the territorial period described jayhawkers as bands of men that were willing to fight, kill and rob for a variety of motives that included defense against pro-slavery "Border Ruffians," abolition, driving pro-slavery settlers from their claims of land, revenge, and/or plunder and personal profit.

The
The meaning of the jayhawker term evolved in the opening year of the Civil War. When Charles Jennison, one of the territorial-era jayhawkers, was authorized to raise a regiment of cavalry to serve in the Union army, he characterized the unit as the "Independent Kansas Jay-Hawkers" on a recruiting poster. The regiment was officially termed the 7th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, but was popularly known as Jennison's Jayhawkers.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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