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Showing posts with the label Fort Riley

4289 - Manhattan, Kansas, United States

There is a Manhattan in Kansas! It is a city of 55 000 people, and nicknamed itself "the Little Apple" as a play on New York City's moniker of the "Big Apple." It was founded by the New England Emigrant Aid Company as a Free-State town in the 1850s. Eli Thayer started the company to transport anti-slavery immigrants into the Kansas Territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was to allow the population of Kansas Territory to choose whether slavery would be legal in the territory. Thayer and his company believed if they move enough anti-slavery immigrants to Kansas, they would be able to shift the balance of political power in the territory, which in turn would lead to Kansas becoming a free state when it eventually joined the United States.  The company wanted to send 20 000 immigrants, a number they didn't get to. In fact it is believed only about 2000 arrived. It did spur pro-slavery people from Missouri to move to Kansas to ensure its admission to the United State...