Final answer:
The term 'Bleeding Kansas' refers to the violent conflicts between pro-slavery and free-state settlers in Kansas, which underscored the nation's divisions over slavery and prefigured the coming of the Civil War.
Step-by-step explanation:
The intense conflicts between pro-slavery and free-state settlers in Kansas over whether it should enter the Union as a free or slave state led to a period of violence and disorder. This time came to be known as Bleeding Kansas. The territory had become a battleground for opposing ideologies with incidents like the Sack of Lawrence, where proslavery forces from Missouri, led by David Atchison, waged an attack on the town, and the Pottawatomie Massacre, a violent response by antislavery advocates led by John Brown. These violent encounters underscored the deep divisions within the United States over the issue of slavery, and were emblematic of the intensity of sentiment and the lengths to which each side would go to influence the decision of whether Kansas would be a free or slave state.The movement to decide Kansas's fate originally tried to utilize the ballot box; however, fraudulent voting and legislative manipulation escalated to violence. These events contributed significantly to the growing sectional conflict leading up to the American Civil War. It was this brutal series of conflicts and the resulting nationwide attention that earned Kansas the nickname 'Bleeding Kansas', a term illustrating the literal and figurative bleeding of a state torn apart by civil strife.