Kansas

Settled amid the violent 'Bleeding Kansas' struggle of the 1850s over whether it would be slave or free, Kansas entered as a free state in 1861 thanks to free-soil Yankees and Midlanders. The open prairie made it a wheat-and-cattle powerhouse and a corridor of the cattle drives and railroads. Its history runs from abolitionist John Brown to Populist and Prohibition movements.

• Existed: 1827 CE – present
• Type: Entity
• Government: U.S. State
• Capital: Topeka