Two one-week Landmarks workshops for eighty school teachers on the history and impact of the Missouri-Kansas border wars during the era of the American Civil War.

"Crossroads of Conflict: Contested Visions of Freedom and the Missouri-Kansas Border Wars" consists of two one-week NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops held during summer 2012 for eighty school teachers on the history and impact of the Missouri-Kansas border wars during the era of the American Civil War. The workshops explore issues and events that precipitated hostilities between settlers in Kansas and Missouri from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 through the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and on through the Civil War era. Participants examine the struggles between the Kansas Jayhawkers and Missouri Bushwackers. Central to the discussion are two concepts of liberty-freedom to hold slaves versus freedom from slavery. The project utilizes a variety of landmark sites illuminating settlement, economic development, and pro- and anti-slavery activity in the area: Lecompton and Lawrence, Kansas, the John Wornall House, the Watkins Woolen Mill, the Steamboat Arabia Museum, the site of the battle of Westport, and the Jesse James farm. The staff includes project director Diane Mutti Burke (history, University of Missouri-Kansas City [UMKC]), program director Edeen Martin, and faculty members Nicole Etcheson (history, Ball State Univerity), LeeAnn Whites (history, University of Missouri-Columbia), Jonathan Earle (history, University of Kansas), Ann Rabb (archaeology, University of Kansas), Ethan Rafuse (military history, US Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth), and other faculty and staff from UMKC. Readings include collections of primary documents and scholarly writings by Etcheson, Mutti Burke, Earle, Michael Fellman, and T. J. Stiles.