At dawn on June 2, 1856, the abolitionist John Brown led a Free-State militia
in an attack on the camp
of a pro-slavery militia led by Henry Clay Pate that was encamped along
the Santa Fe Trail in
southeastern Douglas County, Kansas Territory.
Around 100 men fought an intense three hour battle that ended with Hentry
Clay Pate, the leader of the
pro-slavery militia surrendering to Brown.
This action became known as the Battle of Black Jack.
Pate, a 24 year-old Virginia native, and his militia were in the field
to "get Old Brown" as a
response to the Pottawatomie Massacre on the night of May 24-25, 1856,
for which Brown was implicated.
They were using this as an opportunity to put pressure on Free-State partisans
in the area,
Brown was attempting to stop Pate and his men from their anti-Free-State
activities, and to rescue
two of his sons who had been captured by the proslavery men.
Brown himself called the action "the first regular battle between
Free-State and proslavery forces in Kansas"
Previous "Bleeding Kansas" violence consisted of sackings, massacres,
and other events in
which a more powerful group quickly overwhelmed smaller unarmed or non-resisting
groups and individuals.
The Battle of Black Jack was the first armed action in which two forces
of comparable strength and determination fought in Kansas.
It was the beginning of civil war combat in Kansas, where
a growing number of historians agree that the American Civil War began.
The Battle of Black Jack is where John Brown began his armed war on slavery.
One local historian has called the Battle of Black Jack and Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry the bookends of that war.
There are many direct connections between the battle and the raid.
Brown used the bowie knife he captured from Pate in the battle as the model
for the 1,000 pikes
that he took to arm freed slaves at Harpers Ferry. J.E.B. Stuart, who was
in the
military detachment sent to force John Brown to release Pate and his men,
was later
at Harpers Ferry, and was able to identify the man leadng the raid as the
man he had met
in Kansas in the aftermath of the Battle of Black Jack.
