Nationally Important in the American West

Recognized by the National Park Service in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program and the National Register of Historic Places, the Keeper of the National Register states:

Well-documented and highly important events of national significance focused nationwide attention on the issue of Kansas sovereignty. This issue was one of the most widely debated political crises before the Civil War; Constitution Hall alone represents the important events of the Free Soil Movement and first anti-slavery constitution that took place in Topeka between 1855 and 1860.

The Topeka Constitutional Convention

In October 1855, forty delegates elected from across the Kansas Terrritory gathered here to write the antislavery Topeka Constitution, also known as the Free State Constitution. In 1856, this passed the U.S. House of Repsentatives, but was prevented from consideration by the proslavery Senate.

Dispersion of the Free State Legislature

In 1856 on the Fourth of July, four-hundred U.S. Army troops on horseback assembled in front of Constitution Hall. Calling it the most painful duty of his life, Col. Edwin V. Sumner dispersed the legislators.

The Lane Trail to Freedom

This was a free trade route used for escapes to freedom in the North and Canada. Constitution Hall was the "Quartermaster's Depot" on the Kansas Underground Railroad.

Capitol of Kansas, 1863-1869

Constitution Hall was the first Kansas Capitol while the current Statehouse was built five blocks to the south.