Why did African American Exodusters migrate west?
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Land grant certificate. The Roberts Family Papers, 1734–1944. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (99) Show
Roberts Family Genealogical ChartPhotocopy of manuscript chart. Roberts Family Papers, 1734–1944. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (100) Jobs of Black Women in World War IThe Negro at Work During the World War and During Reconstruction: Statistics, Problems, and Policies Relating to the Greater Inclusion of Negro Wage Earners in American Industry and Agriculture, p. 125. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969. General Collections, Library of Congress (101) Founder and Editor of the Chicago DefenderKenneth L. Kusmer, Ed. The Great Migration and After, 1917–1930, vol. 5, p. 4. Black Communities and Urban Development in America, 1720–1990, vol. 5. New York: Garland, 1991. General Collections, Library of Congress (102) The “Exoduster” MovementNell Irvin Painter. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After the Reconstruction, p. 100. New York: Knopf, 1977. General Collections, Library of Congress (103) Emigrants Traveling to KansasExodusters En Route To Kansas“Negro Exodusters en route to Kansas, fleeing from the yellow fever,” Photomural from engraving. Harpers Weekly, 1870. Historic American Building Survey Field Records, HABS FN-6, #KS-49-11. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (106) Exoduster LeadersBenjamin Singleton, and S.A. McClure, Leaders of the Exodus, leaving Nashville, Tennessee. Photomural from montage. Historic American Building Survey Field Records, HABS FN-6, #KS-49-12. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (107) Beginning in the mid-1870s, as Northern support for Radical Reconstruction retreated, thousands of African Americans chose to leave the South in the hope of finding equality on the western frontier. Taking their cue from the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, they called themselves "exodusters." This letter to the National Emigrant Aid Society from a group of North Carolina freedpeople lists their reasons for wanting to migrate to Kansas. August 1, 1879 We the people of the 2nd Congressional District, North Carolina, have a Strong Desire to Emigrate to Kanses Land Where we can Have a Home. Reason and why:
Nearly all of the laborers have families to take care of and many other things we could mention, but by the help of God we intend to make our start to Kansas land. We had Rather Suffer and be free, than to suffer [the] infamous degrades that are Brought upon us [here] If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. When Reconstruction ended in 1877, southern whites used violence, economic exploitation, discriminatory laws called Black Codes, and political disenfranchisement to subjugate African Americans and undo their gains during Reconstruction. Kansas and other destinations on the Great Plains represented a chance to start a new life. Kansas had fought to be a free state and, with the Homestead Act of 1862, the region offered lots of land at low cost. As a result, between the late 1870s and early 1880s, more than 20,000 African Americans left the South for Kansas, the Oklahoma Territory, and elsewhere on the Great Plains in a migration known as the “Great Exodus.” These African American migrants, or Exodusters, came primarily from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Tennessee. Some participated in organized recruitment efforts to establish black colonies in Kansas. Others just picked up and left, often traveling by steamboat to St. Louis, where they received help to get the rest of the way. One prominent promoter of the Exodus was Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, who organized several colonies in Kansas and recruited African Americans from Tennessee to move there. The peak of the Exodus occurred in the spring of 1879 when 6,000 migrants arrived in Kansas in only a few months. For many Exodusters, the “promised land” of Kansas proved more punishing than they had hoped; the land was difficult to cultivate, and building homes and businesses with few resources proved challenging. The Exodus slowed in the 1880s and, by 1900, the population of many of the rural Exoduster towns and settlements began to decline. The Exodus demonstrated that formerly enslaved people were claiming their freedom of movement—the power to decide where they would travel and live that slavery had denied them. In doing so, they sought better lives for themselves and rejected the violent white supremacist regime that was taking hold in the post-Reconstruction South. The predominantly black communities the Exodusters created provided important models of black self-government and community building in the West at the end of the nineteenth century. Who were Exodusters and why did they move?Exodusters were African Americans who escaped the oppression of discriminatory and racist laws in the South by migrating to Kansas. The vast majority of this migration took place in the 1870s, especially in 1879.
What was the role of black Exodusters?The predominantly black communities the Exodusters created provided important models of black self-government and community building in the West at the end of the nineteenth century.
Why did slaves move westward?Pushing Slavery Into New Regions for Farming and Ranching
Leaving coastal states in search of farmable land and natural resources, settlers pushed their way west—and once they crossed the Mississippi River—into newly acquired Louisiana and later Texas.
Who were the Exodusters and why and when did they leave the South?Beginning in the mid-1870s, as Northern support for Radical Reconstruction retreated, thousands of African Americans chose to leave the South in the hope of finding equality on the western frontier.
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