Introduction to the Battle of Black Jack

The Battle of Black Jack. Early in the pre-dawn hours of June 2, l856, a group of Kansas Free Staters, led by the controversial abolitionist John Brown, moved quietly across the prairie a few miles east of present-day Baldwin City, Kansas. Within a few hours they would be engaged in a pitched battle with Missouri Pro-slavery men led by Captain Henry Clay Pate. This confrontation had its roots in recent events which had raised tensions in the area to the breaking point. Sheriff Jones and his Pro-slaver