author
Pardee Butler
1816–1888
A frontier preacher and fierce antislavery activist, he became one of the memorable voices of Bleeding Kansas. He is still best known for refusing to back down after pro-slavery men set him adrift on a raft in retaliation for his beliefs.
1 Audiobook
Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler
by Pardee Butler
About the author
Born in New York in 1816, he later lived in Ohio and Iowa before settling in Kansas Territory in 1855. He was a farmer as well as a minister in the Restoration Movement, and his life became closely tied to the bitter struggle over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state.
His name is most often linked to one dramatic episode from that conflict: after openly defending antislavery views, he was seized by a pro-slavery mob and sent down the Missouri River on a makeshift raft. Rather than being silenced, he returned to Kansas and continued speaking, preaching, and organizing.
He spent the rest of his life in Kansas, where he remained active in reform causes and earned a lasting place in the state’s history. Pardee Butler died in 1888, remembered as a stubborn, courageous figure of the territorial era.