The Battle of Black Jack - April 1-29, 2011

The Battle of Black Jack
April 1-29, 2011

Traveling Exhibit

View the Invitation

Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War
The Battle of Black Jack is considered by many to have been the first fight of the Civil War. Most certainly, it contributed to the name of "Bleeding Kansas.” On June 2, 1856, the abolitionist John Brown led his free-state militia, with co-commander Samuel Shore, in attacking the camp of a pro-slavery force led by Henry Clay Pate. This clash was the first pitched battle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups. Pate, thinking he was outnumbered and possibly surrounded, eventually surrendered to Brown.

The exhibit opens with an exploration into the lives of John Brown and Henry Clay Pate as well as the men who fought beside them. It explores the territory surrounding the battlefield and its use as part of the Santa Fe Trail and the return of one of the battle’s veterans, Robert Hall Pearson, to farm the area.

The Black Jack Battlefield Trust created the exhibit in the fall of 2009 to mark the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry.

Photo courtesy of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Gift of the Hall Family Foundation, 2008.6.4. Photograph by John Lamberton.

Presented by the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site as part of the 2010-2011 program series, Commemorating Our Nation's Struggle for Freedom: From Civil War to Civil Rights.