Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow (September 3, 1816 – April 26, 1891) was a pro-slavery border ruffian in Kansas, when the slavery issue was put to a local vote in 1855 under the Popular Sovereignty provision. As a General in the Missouri Militia, and former Attorney General of that state, Stringfellow openly defied the law by declaring that Missourians were free to vote in Kansas territory, and attacked abolitionist patrols in what became known as Bleeding Kansas. When the vote went against him, he turned his attention to developing the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.