Toward A More Perfect Union
Discover crucial moments that shaped the course of American history at Constitution Hall in Topeka, the Free State Kansas Territorial Capitol. Here in 1855, delegates gathered for the Topeka Constitutional Convention and boldly prohibited slavery in Kansas. This groundbreaking decision in the proposed Topeka Constitution's Bill of Rights was pivotal in halting the westward expansion of slavery.
However, national proslavery forces prevented Congressional passage of the Topeka Constitution and compelled the U.S. Army to disperse the Topeka Legislature in Constitution Hall on July 4, 1856.
In Constitution Hall by 1857, abolitionist and other antislavery settlers joined to establish an Underground Railroad on the Jim Lane Trail. The trail became a western frontier route to freedom for people escaping by flight to freedom. From the Declaration of Independence, settlers believed that "all people are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Despite federal law and widely-held prejudices both before and after the Civil War, collaboration and courage by settlers and people escaping slavery exemplify the nation's determination to expand freedom for all.
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Constitution Hall was Topeka's first stone building. It held the first local churches and community events, a school, stores, and served in protection of the new town. From 1864-1869, Constitution Hall was part of the first Kansas statehouse.
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Opening in 2025. At right, the new Welcome Center under construction in November 2024.
Constitution Hall, 427-429 S. Kansas Avenue, in Topeka, Kansas.
Partner site in Freedoms Frontier National Heritage Area and in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
National Register of Historic Places listed historic site and a 2022 award recipient in the Save America's Treasures Program.