Jayhawkers and red legs are terms that came to prominence in Kansas Territory during the Bleeding Kansas period of the 1850s; they were adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause during the American Civil War. These gangs were guerrillas who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri, known at the time in Kansas Territory as "Border Ruffians" or "Bushwhackers". After the Civil War, the word "Jayhawker" became synonymous with the people of Kansas, or anybody born in Kansas. Today a modified version of the term, Jayhawk, is used as a nickname for a native-born Kansan. Origin The origin of the term "Jayhawker" may go back as far as the Revolutionary War, when it was reportedly used to describe a group associated with American Founding Father John Jay, who was also the First Chief Justice of the United States. Jay believed in the abolition of slavery and that America should be governed by Christians; he has been described by historians as a "Christian Nationalist" and "among the most orthodox of Christians," according to Cambridge University and Oxford University professor Daniel Dreisbach. In 1816, Jay wrote, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." In 1776, prior to America's founding, Jay condemned slavery as a moral evil, and would be quoted as saying, "The Holy Gospels are yet to be preached to these western regions, and we have the highest reason to believe that the Almighty will not suffer slavery and the gospel to go hand in hand. It cannot, it will not be." Because of his positions on the immorality of slavery and the need for Christianity in government, many dubbed the political and militia groups that arose over the next century that were largely Christian and militantly anti-slavery as "Jayhawkers." Early usage The term did not appear in the first American edition of Burtlett's Dictionary of Americanisms (1848), but was entered into the fourth improved and enlarged edition in 1877 as a cant name for a freebooting armed man in the western United States. It was established that the term was adopted as a nickname by a group of emigrants from Illinois traveling to California in 1849, who got stuck in the Death Valley. In 1858–1859, the slang term "Jayhawking" became