The play takes place in Texas.  Two old friends, Bob and Charlie, met after ten years of separation and try to recall the events that happened in 1855.

Bob: My Goodness, is that you Charlie?

Charlie: Take me to hell! Bob, is that you old fellow?

Bob: I haven’t seen like for ages! How are you? Where have you been?

…After a couple if beers, the two friends start to remember the old times, when they were engaged in the war affair of Bleeding Kansas.

Bob: I remember when we heard that the armed forces were coning from New England and other slave-free states, we gathered a huge group from Missouri and marched to Kansas.  This was when we met, right Charlie?

Charlie: Right you are my friend.  It was summer, and about 1,200 people from the North, including me, were armed by the famous abolitionist Henry Ward Breecher.  We were quite furious with you guys from the South, and were ready to fight under any conditions.

Bob: I know.  However, we heard a rumor that 30,000 Northerners we coming down from New England, therefore we formed a group called the Border Ruffians and thousands of people from my state of Missouri crossed the border and settled in Texas to vote for slavery.  You know that had their own thoughts about the problem.  We won the election and Kansas remained a pro-salvery state.

Charlie: Correct. However, in August some of the free-state representatives gathered and decided to reject the laws that were passed by the local authorities regarding slavery. I was one of those people, and we actually formed a kind of ‘shadow government’ with our own consitutuon, which was called the Topeca Constitution.  Nonetheless, some of the settlers took more drastic measures and opened a war against the Southerners.  They were commanded by the notorius John Brown.

Bob: Indeed, I heard if him.  However, in response, in May we crossed the border of Lawrence and attacked the stronghold, destroyed and burned the printing presses, houses, and stores.  In April the president approved the decision and results of the elections and left Kansas to be a proslavery state.  A year later, thousands of Southerners formed an army and went to Kansas.  The hostilities continued another two months until John Brown left Kansas and a new governor John Geary managed to establish a shaky peace between the fighting groups.  Nevertheless, the peace was broken with two more years of violence coming up from both ends.  I guess we managed to carry out one more event before it all was over Marais des Cygnes massacre, when our group, the Border Ruffians, killed five of your men.  It happened in 1858, if my memory serves me well, and it was the last attempt to fight for the proslavery Texas.

Charlie: I guess nearly 56 people were killed overall by the end of the Bleeding Kansas.  The peace that appeared after it was not too long though, as far as the Civil War was coming.  I believe that it was precisely the Bleeding Texas that pushed the North and the South to fight for their rights and beliefs.   The Bleeding Texas was only a light beginning, and introduction to the bigger, tougher, and more complicated war conflict.

Note:

Yes, approximately 56 people died during the Bleeding Kansas.  It began in 1855 and in ended in 1859. Later on the Civil War broke out in 1861.  The last major outbreak of violence was touched off by Marais des Cygnes massacre the in 1858, when five people from the slave-free states were killed.