Editorial: Unique to us

Lawrence residents should take some time today to reflect on the brutality of Quantrill’s massacre and why this town is special.

We all have shared dates where we should stop and remember: Memorial Day, Veterans Day, 9/11, are a few. But Lawrence has one that is unique to this community. It is today.

On Aug. 21, 1863, William Quantrill led a band of pro-slavery guerrillas into Lawrence during the early-morning hours, then proceeded to kill more than 180 men and boys and burned much of the city.

Sometimes the event is called Quantrill’s Raid, but, as this newspaper has noted before, that is inaccurate: It was a massacre.

Local historian Pat Kehde, who is a descendant of one of the victims, once did some back-of-the-envelope math. Records indicate Lawrence’s population in 1863 was 1,645 people. Assume half of them were male. Some were male children, and some of the adult male population already had left to fight in the Civil War. Kehde believes a fair estimate of the number of adult males in the city that day is about 700. If so, Quantrill killed about a quarter of the entire adult male population in the city. In today’s terms, a killing of 25 percent of Lawrence’s male population 15 years and older would be more than 9,000 deaths.

We should never forget the brutality that occurred in Lawrence. We also should never forget why it occurred. Lawrence was a special place. While so many other communities are founded on the idea of commerce, Lawrence was founded on a conviction: Slavery must be abolished. This part of Kansas, with Lawrence as its moral compass, became the place where beliefs first turned to blood in what would become a terrible Civil War.

For much of its beginnings, the eyes of the nation really were focused on Lawrence. It was that special of a place. Residents here made a courageous stand, and paid a heavy price for it on Aug. 21, 1863.

If that is all we remember, though, we are committing an injustice. Perhaps part of today’s remembrance should be a stroll down beautiful Massachusetts Street. It is still here and extremely prosperous, despite the tragedy that occurred there in 1863.

Losing a quarter of the adult male population would have killed many communities. It did not kill Lawrence, although there were days that the community struggled mightily. It endured, and is a special place today.

But Lawrence didn’t survive because of some magic or some spirit that hung over the city. It survived because of the people who lived and worked here every day. It is good that history books still remember the Lawrence Massacre, but the danger is it simply becomes a story in a history book. These were real people who died, real people who suffered in the aftermath.

Today, we should be pained by their suffering. Tomorrow, we should be inspired by their perseverance.

May Lawrence long be a special place.