A Jayhawker was a term applied to anti-slavery militant bands from a certain US state that clashed with pro-slavery factions from Missouri. Which state is this, sometimes referred to as the Jayhawk State?
Jayhawker Jayhawker Jayhawkers and red legs are terms that came to prominence in Kansas Territory, during the Bleeding Kansas period of the 1850s; they were adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause during the American Civil War. These gangs were guerrillas who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri, known at the time in Kansas Territory as "Border Ruffians". After the Civil War, the word "Jayhawker" became synonymous with the people of Kansas, or anybody born in Kansas. Today a modified version of the term, Jayhawk, is used as a nickname for a native-born Kansan, but more typically for
History of slavery in Missouri territory then held by Confederate forces. On January 11, 1865, a state convention approved an ordinance abolishing slavery in Missouri by a vote of 60-4, and later the same day, Governor Thomas C. Fletcher followed up with his own "Proclamation of Freedom". This action effectively marked the end of legal slavery in the state of Missouri. , slavery illegally continues as modern-day labor and sex human trafficking. History of slavery in Missouri The history of large-scale slavery in the State of Missouri began in 1720, when a French entrepreneur named Philippe François Renault brought about 500 negro slaves from Saint-Domingue