Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company
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The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company was founded in 1854 by Eli Thayer of Massachusetts to fight against the extension of slavery to Kansas Territory. In 1855, the company reorganized and changed its named to the New England Emigrant Aid Company.
Thayer and his partners believed that if enough "Free-Staters" established themselves in Kansas Territory, they would prevent state-sanctioned slavery by exercising their right to popular sovereignty. Settlers sent by the Company were centrally involved in the "Bleeding Kansas" saga. The company was directly responsible for creating the Kansas towns of Lawrence and Manhattan, and it played a key role in founding Topeka and Osawatomie.
[edit] References
- Thayer, Eli (1889). History of the Kansas Crusade: Its Friends and its Foes.