Exodusters - wikipedia Exodusters African - American topics History ( timeline ) Atlantic slave trade African - American history Slavery in the United States History in agriculture African - American business history African - American military history Jim Crow laws Great Migration Redlining Second Great Migration Post-Civil War reform movements Civil rights movement Origins of the civil rights movement Civil rights movement Black Power movement Post -- civil rights era New Great Migration Culture Studies Art Business history Black conductors Black mecca Black schools Black colleges and universities Juneteenth Kwanzaa Literature Museums Music Neighborhoods Religion Black church Black theology Nation of Islam Political movements Afrocentrism Black Power Anarchism Capitalism Conservatism Leftism Nationalism Populism Black Panther Party Garveyism Pan-Africanism Back - to - Africa movement Civic / economic groups Rights organizations National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) National Urban League ( NUL ) Association for the Study of African American Life and History ( ASALH ) United Negro College Fund ( UNCF ) Thurgood Marshall College Fund National Black Chamber of Commerce ( NBCC ) National Pan-Hellenic Council ( NPHC ) National Council of Negro Women ( NCNW ) TransAfrica Forum Sports Negro league baseball Athletic associations and conferences Central ( CIAA ) Southern ( SIAC ) Mid-Eastern ( MEAC ) Southwestern ( SWAC ) Ethnic subdivisions Americo - Liberians Black Indians ( Seminoles ) Black Southerners Gullah Igbo Languages English ( American ) ( African American ) Gullah ( Afro - Seminole Creole ) Louisiana Creole French Diaspora Nova Scotia Liberia Sierra Leone France Lists African Americans African - American firsts First mayors US state firsts Landmark African - American legislation African American - related topics Topics related to Black and African people Category : African - American society African American portal Exodusters was a name given to African Americans who migrated from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas in the late nineteenth century, as part of the Exoduster Movement or Exodus of 1872. It was the first general migration of black people following the Civil War. The movement received substantial organizational support from prominent figures, Benjamin Singleton of Tennessee and Henry Adams of Louisiana. As many as forty thousand Exodusters left the South to settle in Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Contents 1 Reality of life for Blacks in the post-Reconstruction South 1.1 Millenarianism 1.2 Role of Black leadership 2 Promised lands 2.1 Kansas vs. Liberia 2.2 Reality in Kansas 3 Response to the exodus 4 Impact of the Exodusters 5 Exodusters in fiction 6 References 7 External links 8 Further reading Reality of Life for blacks in the post-Reconstruction South The number one cause of black migration out of the South at this time was to escape racial violence or `` bulldozing '' by white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White League, and widespread repression under the Black Codes, discriminatory laws that rendered blacks second - class citizens after Reconstruction. Vigilantes operated with almost total impunity, and no other issue was of more importance to the majority of southern blacks living in the countryside. Given the extreme level of discrimination and violent intimidation blacks faced in the rural South, the Exodusters can more accurately be described as refugees. Although blacks greatly outnumbered whites in Louisiana, black armed resistance was practically inconceivable. According to William Murrell in testimony given to the United States Senate, `` the white people in Louisiana are better armed and equipped now than during the war. '' As evidence of the frightening lawlessness, which empowered the terrorist activities of the Louisiana White League in the mid-1870s, the League `` managed to seize a huge cache of arms from the arsenal in New Orleans... worth about $67,000 - '' stolen directly from the United States government. The Exodusters were not only fleeing extremist groups like the KKK. In fact, throughout Reconstruction a majority of the southern white population continued to resent black emancipation, resulting in an oppressive environment perpetuated by all segments of white society. Most black migration, including the Exodus of 1879, was spurred on by the dire economic prospects of black labor in the rural South. The depression of the 1870s served to exacerbate the racist policies of white merchants and planters, who sought to offset their agricultural losses by increasing prices and interest rates for blacks. Most southern states completely undermined federal Reconstruction efforts to promote landowning as the Blacks ' ticket to economic freedom and equality. For example, in 1865 the Mississippi State Black Code actually outlawed the selling or leasing of land to Blacks. As a result, in large parts of Mississippi, less than 1 in 100 black workers owned land or a house. In the aftermath of the Compromise of 1877 and the traumatic political campaigns of 1878 in Louisiana, the plight of organized black resistance had reached a point of hopelessness, leading to the Exodus of 1879. Political and economic oppression was enforced by means both legal and illegal, on the streets and in contracts, at both the local and federal levels. Grassroots black political activism, exemplified by the leadership of Henry Adams in Louisiana, functioned only in total secrecy and at great risk of assassination. Such efforts were eventually pushed out of rural communities and into New Orleans, where many organizers including Adams found themselves exiled. Millenarianism The Exoduster movement has been characterized as an example of millenarianism, in that many exodusters created settlements they believed to be their new, Promised Land. That the journey of these refugees was termed an `` exodus, '' a word taken from the Old Testament in reference to the Jews ' flight from Egypt, indicates that the movement had spiritual motivations. The millenarian aspect of the Exodus was most realized in Tennessee, where Benjamin `` Pap '' Singleton 's boisterous proselytizing found most an enthusiastic black following and a more amenable white audience. `` Ho For Kansas ! '' Copyprint handbill Role of black leadership While the roles of community leaders like Singleton and Adams, white facilitators like Thomas Conway, formal politicians, and white philanthropists were in some ways crucial to the Exodus, the migration ultimately came about as a result of the collective misery of black southerners and the individual inquiry and initiative taken in response by would - be migrants. Black political leaders at the time, such as Adams and Singleton at the local level and Frederick Douglass and Mississippi Senator Blanche K. Bruce at the national level, were limited in their ability to influence the southern black populace. For this reason, during the post-Reconstruction period, Blacks did not enjoy any truly representative national leadership. Promised lands Kansas vs. Liberia Before the Exodus of 1879 to Kansas, southern blacks convened to discuss the option of emigration both formally and informally. Delegates from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, and Georgia met at a New Orleans conference in 1875 and discussed black emigration to western territories and Liberia. Black settlement outside of the South as a result of emigration was termed `` colonization, '' and the New Orleans committee meeting became a full - fledged organization dubbed, `` The Colonization Council. '' The Council held its first public meetings in 1877. Council meetings consisted of speechmaking and petition writing and signing, with some 98,000 men, women, and children from Louisiana signed onto emigration lists. Liberia proved an unrealistic destination for Black refugees financially and logistically. As the land of John Brown, Kansas had fought bitterly for its Free State status, and took its fair treatment of black immigrants as a point of pride. Kansas did not actively encourage the Exodusters ; rather, its equal opportunity stance was more welcoming in comparison to most of the country. Reality in Kansas The most successful of the Exodusters were those who moved to urban centers and found work as domestic or trade workers. Almost all of the Exodusters who attempted to homestead in the countryside settled in the Kansas uplands, which presented the most formidable obstacles to small - scale farmers. The uplands were the only lands available for purchase after the squatters, railroads, and speculators had taken the best farmland. Given the agricultural challenge of farming these lands, many Exodusters were still destitute a year after their arrival. Response to the Exodus Refugees on Levee, 1897 The Exodus of 1879 consisted mostly of refugees fleeing Mississippi and Louisiana between March and May and Texas later in the year. There was considerable uncertainty at the time as to the actual number of Exodusters that arrived in St. Louis. However, the Colored Relief Board estimated that about 20,000 Exodusters reached the city between 1879 and 1880 ; the St. Louis Globe - Democrat quoted 6,206 arriving between March and April 1879 alone. Many steamboat captains refused to carry migrants across the Mississippi River, and thousands of Exodusters found themselves stranded for months in St. Louis. Black churches in St. Louis, together with eastern philanthropists, formed the Colored Relief Board and the Kansas Freedmen 's Aid Society to help those stranded in St. Louis reach Kansas. In contrast to fundraising success in Kansas, `` St. Louis officials discouraged the Exodusters whenever possible, '' and therefore the burden of providing for stranded Exodusters fell entirely on the St. Louis black community. Other private relief organizations were funded by Quakers and other abolitionists in northern states and England. The Kansas Freedman 's Aid Society raised some $70,000 in support of Exoduster migration and settlement, $13,000 of which came from England. The failure of federal and state governments to financially support black migrants can be attributed to both bureaucratic incompetence ( as in the case of the mayor of Kansas being denied temporary assistance from the secretary of war due to congressional jurisdiction ) and to nineteenth - century preferences for limited government. At the local level, Topeka Mayor Michael C. Case refused to spend municipal funds to aid Exodusters, believing that the money would be better spent to return them to the South. Moreover, much of the poor white population resented the extent of relief efforts aimed at helping immigrant blacks. The political response of southern white Democrats, and of some conservative `` representative '' Black men, was one of disgust and incomprehension. They distrusted the intentions of white philanthropy in aiding black migration ; in fact, they were convinced of ulterior motives. They denied outright claims of economic hardship and political oppression as motivating factors for black flight. They attributed feelings of discontent to a small group of leading black rabble - rousers and outside white meddling. In solidarity, the Democratic party as a whole `` refused to admit to the fact of Southern lawlessness because many of the crimes had been perpetrated by Democrats, usually for their party 's own advancement. '' In contrast, the Senate minority opinion, represented in a report by Minnesota Senator William Windom and New Hampshire Senator Henry W. Blair, utilized the direct testimony of prominent black figures and sided with them. Ultimately, though, the Democratic majority in Congress ensured that no legislation would be passed in support of the Exodus Movement. Appropriation bills for refugee aid introduced by Kansas Senator John J. Ingalls and Ohio Representative James A. Garfield died in committee. Senate investigations debated whether or not black migration fit into a greater conspiratorial political scheme on the part of Republicans, who were thought to be packing swing states to increase their chances of success in the upcoming 1880 presidential election, which Republicans did win. Such accusations, lobbed in particular at Kansas Governor St. John and Thomas Conway, were only seriously considered at the end of 1879, when more attention was being given to the black migrants from North Carolina, who, unable to reach Kansas, were being redirected to Indiana. The Exodus was not universally praised by African Americans ; indeed, Frederick Douglass was a critic of the movement. Douglass did not disagree with the Exodusters in principle, but he felt that the movement was ill - timed and poorly organized. Impact of the Exodusters Although the Exodus of 1879 saw a high volume of black migration during a shorter period of time, most of the black migration to Kansas occurred steadily throughout the decade. The black population of Kansas increased by some 26,000 people during the 1870s. Historian Nell Painter further asserts that `` the sustained migration of some 9,500 Blacks from Tennessee and Kentucky to Kansas during the decade far exceeded the much publicized migration of 1879, which netted no more than about 4,000 people from Louisiana. '' During the 1870s and the decade that followed, blacks bought more than 20,000 acres ( 81 km ) of land in Kansas, and several of the settlements established during this time ( e.g., Nicodemus, Kansas, which was founded in 1877 ) still exist today. Of note, however, western migration of African - Americans was not limited to the Exoduster period, and places like Quindaro, Kansas, thrived for some period before, during, and after the Exoduster movement. Similarly, in the early 20th century, black migrations to the American West and Southwest would continue, and several additional all - black towns would be established, especially in Indian Territory, which would become the state of Oklahoma. The impact of the Exoduster migration on subsequent white treatment of African Americans was mixed. On the one hand, the exodus did little to alleviate the national propensity for violence towards blacks. From the 1880s through the 1930s, the lynching of African Americans increased, and some 3,000 lynchings took place during that period nationwide. On the other hand, the Exoduster migration seems to have had some impact on labor relations between southern black farm workers and their white employers. Temporary benefits accorded to counties with the highest black labor scarcity included better price terms in leasing contracts and shrinking long - term contract commitments. Exodusters in fiction Gabriel 's Story, by David Anthony Durham. Paradise, by Toni Morrison. Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World, by Mildred Pitts Walker. Why the Dark Man Cries, by Connie Fredricks References Jump up ^ Van Deusen, John G. ( 1936 ). The Journal of Negro History. Association for the Study of African - American Life and History, Inc. p. 111. Jump up ^ Johnson, Daniel Milo ( 1981 ). Black Migration in America : A Social Demographic History. Duke University Press. p. 51. ISBN 0 - 8223 - 0449 - X. Jump up ^ `` Slavery in America Encyclopedia ''. Retrieved 2007 - 10 - 19. ^ Jump up to : Gates, Henry Louis ( 1999 ). Africana : The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Basic Civitas Books. p. 722. ISBN 0 - 465 - 00071 - 1. ^ Jump up to : Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 27. ^ Jump up to : Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 23. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 17. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 62. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 7. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 68. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 133. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 110 -- 111. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 89. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 83. ^ Jump up to : Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 87. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 159. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 231. Jump up ^ `` Exodusters ''. www.fofweb.com. Facts on File History Database. ^ Jump up to : Hickey, Joseph V. ( Winter 1991 ). `` '' Pap '' Singleton 's Dunlap Colony : Relief Agencies and the Failure of a Black Settlement in Eastern Kansas ``. Great Plains Quarterly. University of Nebraska - Lincoln : Center for Great Plains Studies. 11 ( 1 ). ^ Jump up to : Quintard, Taylor ( 1998 ). In Search of the Racial Frontier : African Americans in the American West, 1528 - 1990. New York, NY : W.W. Norton. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 185. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 184. Jump up ^ White, Richard ( 1991 ). It 's Your Misfortune and None of My Own. U.S.A. : University of Oklahoma Press. p. 198. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 232. ^ Jump up to : Warren, Kim. `` Seeking the Promised Land : African American Migrations to Kansas ''. www.civilwaronthewesternborder.com. Missouri State Library. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 233. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 253. ^ Jump up to : Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 254. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 255. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 250. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 252. Jump up ^ Romero, Patricia W. ( 1968 ). I Too Am America : Documents from 1619 to the Present. Publishers Agency. p. 150. ISBN 0 - 87781 - 206 - 3. Jump up ^ Sernett, Milton C. ( 1997 ). Bound for the Promised Land : African American Religion and the Great Migration. Duke University Press. p. 14. ISBN 0 - 8223 - 1993 - 4. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 146. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 147. Jump up ^ Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). Exodusters. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company. p. 210. External links Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Negro Exodus. ( PBS The West `` Exodusters '' ) ( Kansas State Historical Society, Exoduster Flier ) Access documents, photographs, and other primary sources on Kansas Memory, the Kansas State Historical Society 's digital portal Campney, Brent M.S. This is Not Dixie : The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence Southern Spaces 6 September 2007 Davis, Damani. Exodus to Kansas. The 1880 Senate Investigation of the Beginnings of the African American Migration from the South. Prologue Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 2 ( Summer 2008 ). Further reading Katz, William ( 1987 ). The Black West. Seattle : Open Hand Publishing. Moore, Shirley ; Taylor, Quintard ( 2003 ). African American Women Confront the West, 1600 - 2000. Norman, OK : University of Oklahoma Press. Painter, Nell Irvin ( 1976 ). The Exodusters. New York : W.W. Norton. Ravage, John W. ( 1997 ). Black Pioneers. Salt Lake City : University of Utah Press. Savage, W. Sherman ( 1976 ). Blacks in the West. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press. Woods, Randall B. ( 1998 ). African Americans on the Western Frontier. Niwot, CO : University Press of Colorado. Woodson, Carter G. ( 1969 ). A Century of Negro Migration. New York : Russell and Russell. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Exodusters&oldid=839393095 '' Categories : African - American history of Kansas African - American history between emancipation and the Civil Rights Movement African - American demographics History of the United States ( 1865 -- 1918 ) History of Kansas 1879 in the United States History of the Southern United States 1879 in Kansas Politically motivated migrations Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from February 2013 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Languages Français Edit links This page was last edited on 3 May 2018, at 03 : 48. 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Question: who migrated to kansas during the kansas exodus
Answer: African Americans