1856

This page lists news articles and events for the year 1856.

Events that happen on the specified date are listed under Events: entries. News articles that were published on the specified date are listed under News: entries. Events that only happened in fiction on the specified date are listed under Fiction: entries and are written in italics.

Undated

  • Event: Violence between pro and anti-slavery forces in the Kansas Territory rages over the summer, giving the territory the name of Bleeding Kansas

January

February

  • February 8:
    • Event: Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher publishes an article encouraging people to send rifles to anti-slavery settlers in Kansas; these rifles become known as ''Beecher's Bibles"

March

April

May

  • May 21:
  • May 24:
    • Event: A group of Abolitionists, believed to be led by John Brown, seize and brutally murder five pro-slavery Kansas settlers.

June

July

August

September

  • Event: Governor John W. Geary of Kansas orders a cease-fire in the war between anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers, briefly bringing peace to Bleeding Kansas

October

November

December

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