A Country Divided : Through Blood United

The Beginning: Murder

A few weeks after I saw my family trying to sway the vote in Kansas, Oliver and I rushed to the signs posted around the town of the voting results. Outside our doorstep was a results sign posted next to the front window.

The sign proudly read:

"Kansas is officially a pro-slavery territorial legislature. Only pro-slavery men are allowed to hold territorial offices or serve on juries. Death penalty to anyone who causes a slave rebellion."

I gasped in shock. "This is inhumane!"

"And illegal too," Oliver added. "This can't be tolerated."

"What should we do?" I glanced at my friend who was so in thought it looked like gears were spinning in his mind.

"I have an idea," Oliver finally announced. "I'll hold a meeting here. At our house. We'll come up with a new constitution and we'll ban slavery in Kansas."

***

A few weeks after the results signs were posted in Topeka, the deliberation about the new constitution was finally complete, and slavery was now banned in Kansas. The crowds inside and outside of our house cheered once the constitution was complete, but I stood in silence. In the back of my mind, I thought about how Evan might feel about the new Kansas constitution.

After the majority of Kansas' population approved of the new constitution, it was sent to congress, and soon after that, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state. Oliver and I couldn't be happier.

***

I scrambled into Oliver's room, my cardigan slipping off of my shoulders. "Oliver! Wake up! Someone's being murdered outside!"

Oliver jumped out of bed and I quickly led him downstairs and outside, where an antislavery man was being beaten by pro-slavery men. Each of the pro-slavery men were armed with a knife, and they took turns to chop at the innocent man's limbs.

"Hey!" I shouted, my hands cupped to my mouth. "Stop that! You're going to kill the poor man!"

"Isn't that the point of this?" One of the pro-slavery men rasped angrily. He spat at the ground and continued to work on killing the anti-slavery man.

I groaned in frustration. "Get away from him!" I shouted as I sprinted toward the mob of attackers.

I quickly kicked one of the men in the jaw, sending him backward. He yelped in pain and fell over, his hands gripping his broken jaw.

"Now, you'll never be able to speak like that again," I growled. "Or, you probably won't be able to speak at all."

Another one of the attackers lunged at me in revenge, but I kicked him in the groin, causing him to bend over in aching pain. I dashed over to him and kneed him in the nose, instantly breaking it. The man fell forward and face planted on the cold, dusty road.

Oliver came storming out of the house, his arms flailing. "Evan! There's too many of them! Back off now! We can't save this guy!"

"But-" My words were muted as Oliver scooped me over his shoulder, causing me to lose the air in my lungs.

Once I was able to breathe again, I flailed my arms and legs. "Let me at them! I need to save that man!" I could still see the remaining members of the little posse beating the innocent man. He was on the ground curled into a fetal position, begging for mercy.

An ear-splitting cry sliced the sky. It was me shouting the word No at the top of my lungs as the posse finally decapitated the innocent man. His head rolled a few feet ahead, almost causing me to gag. If Oliver hadn't scooped me onto his shoulder, that man would be alive and breathing.