Counteract the Effect: The Shortcoming of Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow

The Missouri-Kansas border war is typically remembered through the figureheads of the conflict. The sacking of Lawrence, carried out by William Quantrill and his Confederate guerrillas, General Order No. 11, facilitated by the U.S. government, and those who have become legends posthumously, such as Jesse James or 'Bloody' Bill Anderson, are among its most iconic moments and individuals. However, many major players have been lost to the pages of history. Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow is one of them—and one of the greatest losers of the war. Stringfellow's story is crucial to demonstrating not only the push that pro-slavery advocates made into Kansas, but also the effort it took for those in Kansas to reject the institution of slavery.

 

Written and narrated by Colin Kavanaugh

Recording Engineer: Liam Arnzen

Postproduction: Kyle Jackson

Theme song and music: Derrick Doty

Additional music: Kaitlin, Casey, Kyle

What is The Past in Pieces: Tales of the Missouri-Kansas Border War?

The Past in Pieces: Tales from the Missouri-Kansas Border War is a new narrative history podcast series created by students at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri. Each fifteen-minute episode explores an aspect of the nineteenth-century struggle over slavery in the Kansas-Missouri borderlands, where the Civil War began. Listeners encounter Jayhawkers, Bushwhackers, and ordinary families; moments of political crisis and personal tragedy; and stories of the harrowing violence that fell most heavily on civilians. The series also traces the first African American troops in combat and how their experiences reshaped the meaning of freedom. The pieces of each episode form a larger picture, like a puzzle coming together to reveal the full story of an era of American history that is more relevant than ever as we drift toward political violence in our own era today.