Chapter 77: Kansas Free State forces pass their Topeka Constitution and elect a legislature.

The 37 Free State delegates who gather on October 23, 1855 at Topeka are sharply divided between followers of the racist military man, James Henry Lane, who wants Kansas exclusively for free white men, and local abolitionist leader, medical doctor Charles Robinson.

Sixteen contentious days are needed to craft the Topeka Constitution with its 27 Articles including:

Sec. 6. There shall be no slavery in this state, nor involuntary servitude,
unless for the punishment of crime.

Sec. 21. No indenture of any negro or mulatto, made and executed out
of the bounds of the State, shall be valid within the State.

The document is completed after a compromise allowing separate public votes on the Constitution itself vs. the separate clause barring all Black residence.