The Border between Them: Violence and Reconciliation on the Kansas-Missouri Line

by Jeremy Neely

The most bitter guerrilla conflict in American history raged along the Kansas-Missouri border from 1856 to 1865, making that frontier the first battleground in the struggle over slavery. That fiercely contested boundary represented the most explosive political fault line in the United States, and its bitter divisions foreshadowed an entire nation torn asunder. Jeremy Neely now examines the significance of the border war on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri line and offers a comparative, cross-border analysis of its origins, meanings, and consequences.             A narrative history of the border war and its impact on citizens of both states, The Border between Them recounts the exploits of John Brown, William Quantrill, and other notorious guerrillas, but it also uncovers the stories of everyday people who lived through that conflict. Examining the frontier period to the close of the nineteenth century, Neely frames the guerrilla conflict within the larger story of the developing West and squares that violent period with the more peaceful—though never tranquil—periods that preceded and followed it.             Focusing on the countryside south of the big bend in the Missouri River, an area where there was no natural boundary separating the states, Neely examines three border counties in each state that together illustrate both sectional division and national reunion. He draws on the letters and diaries of ordinary citizens—as well as newspaper accounts, election results, and census data—to illuminate the complex strands that helped bind Kansas and Missouri together in post–Civil War America. He shows how people on both sides of the line were already linked by common racial attitudes, farming practices, and ambivalence toward railroad expansion; he then tells how emancipation, industrialization, and immigration eventually eroded wartime divisions and facilitated the reconciliation of old foes from each state.             Today the “border war” survives in the form of interstate rivalries between collegiate Tigers and Jayhawks, allowing Neely to consider the limits of that reconciliation and the enduring power of identities forged in wartime. The Border between Them is a compelling account of the terrible first act of the American Civil War and its enduring legacy for the conflict’s veterans, victims, and survivors, as well as subsequent generations.

Genres: Civil War, Nonfiction

328 pages, Hardcover

First published April 23, 2007

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very specific as it focuses on the Missouri-Kansas border where partisan violence broke out in 1854 well before the actual American Civil War. I live in Missouri so my area of interest is the Missouri border counties of upper Vernon County, Bates County, and Cass County although there is also a lot of information on the Kansas counties just to the west of these counties. For those interested in the local history (if you're local to this area), this is a wonderfully deep dive. The book starts out with the expulsion of the Native American population so it wasn't as if things were entirely peaceful before the border war, focusing on slavery and abolitionism. This area did not have a lot of slave owners although there were some. It's apparent reading this that it was never about the black population as people but simply the advantage slave owners had exploiting their labor. John Brown was on the Kansas border for a while before he went east and ended up captured and hanged for trying to ignite a slave uprising. What's key in this book is how people both in Missouri and Kansas moved forward after the Civil War. The Missouri-Kansas border is a geographic border on a map without a river or anything in particular to distinguish it. After the Civil War, new challenges were boosterism for various railroad schemes - many of which were more dreams than a real plan, hard for cash poor farmers to support after the war. The railroads did ultimately give the farmers a way to send excess crops - typically corn - and beef cattle to market giving them an important cash income. My rating is 4 stars because I found this book a challenging read. The chapters were long without being broken up. There is a lot of information packed in, which I love, but this is a book I consider college level reading.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting as it deals with Civil War history that took place in the area I live. I was able to meet the Mr. Neely and hear about his research. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the pre-Civil War history.