The Pottawatomie Rifles was a group of about one hundred abolitionist (or free state) settlers of Franklin and Anderson County, Kansas, both of which are along Pottawatomie Creek. The band was formed in the fall of 1855, during the Bleeding Kansas period, as an armed militia to counter growing pro-slavery presence: an influx of men known as border ruffians, from the neighboring slave state of Missouri.
Led by John Brown's son John Jr., men from the Pottawatomie Rifles took part in much of the violence known as Bleeding Kansas, including the Battle of Osawatomie and the Pottawatomie massacre.