The Missouri-Kansas Border Wars: Contested Visions of Freedoms

FAIN: BH-50244-07

University of Missouri, Kansas City (Kansas City, MO 64110-2235)
Edeen Joyce Martin (Project Director: March 2007 to July 2009)

Two one-week workshops for 100 school teachers on conflicts in Kansas and Missouri over conflicting visions of freedom during the Civil War era.

Crossroads of Conflict: Contested Visions of Freedom and the Missouri-Kansas Border War is a Landmarks of American History Workshop for Teachers that will explore this clash of cultures and differing definitions of ?freedom? that played out on the Missouri-Kansas border in the decade before the Civil War. The purpose of the Crossroads of Culture workshop will be to give K-12 teachers tools to devise fresh techniques for using historical settings, architecture, material culture, art and drama along with historical documents and records to enable students to engage the past and gain a better understanding of the forces that shaped and continue to influence national and local history. Historic landmarks included: Watkins Woolen Mill, the John Wornall House, Historic Lawrence, KS and Historic Westport, MO, Consitutuion Hall in Lecompton, KS, sites of the battles of Black Jack and Westport, and collections at the Steamboat Arabia Museum and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.