Benjamin "Pap" Singleton
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Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809-1892) was an early Civil Rights leader and founder of two black separatist colonies in Kansas. Although illiterate, Singleton went on to become a national spokesman for the Exodusters of 1879-1880.
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[edit] Early life
Although it is known that Benjamin Singleton was born in 1809 as a slave in Davidson County near Nashville, Tennessee, details of his early life remain scant. He was the son of a black mother and a white father and was trained as a carpenter. Reportedly Singleton made several attempts to run away but remained in bondage until 1846 when he successfully escaped to freedom. Singleton made his way north along the Underground Railroad to Windsor, Canada, and remained there a year before relocating to Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit he lived as a scavenger and used what resources he could to help other escaped slaves find their way to Canada. Singleton remained in Detroit until the end of the Civil War.
[edit] Separatism
When the Civil War ended in 1865, Singleton returned to his native Tennessee. He took up residence in Nashville and worked as a carpenter and coffin maker. His experiences in making coffins for victims of lynching in the period of Reconstruction led him to conclude that blacks would have no chance for equality in the South. Disgusted by the posturing of political leaders who failed to deliver on their promises of freedom and equality for former slaves, Singleton in 1869 joined forces with Columbus M. Johnson and began looking for ways to establish black economic independence.
In 1874, Singleton and Johnson founded the Edgefield Real Estate Association with the goal of helping African Americans obtain land in the Nashville area. Unfortunately, white landowners were unwilling to bargain with Singleton and would not sell land to blacks at anything other than outrageous prices. Convinced that African Americans must separate from the South if they were ever to gain true independence, Singleton in 1875 began to explore the idea of planting black colonies in the American West. His real estate organization was renamed the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association, and in 1876 Singleton and Johnson made a personal trip to Kansas to scout out land in Cherokee County in the southeastern corner of the state. Heartened by what he saw, Singleton returned to Nashville with the news and began recruiting settlers for a proposed colony.
[edit] The Singleton Colonies
In the summer of 1877, Singleton led approximately seventy-three African American settlers to Cherokee County near the town of Baxter Springs. Once the settlers arrived, they began negotiating with the Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad for land to build their proposed Singleton Colony. Unfortunately, rich lead deposits had been discovered in the area during the previous year, which led to a mining boom and caused land prices to rise above the ability of Singleton's colonists to pay. Without the ability to buy land, the colony idea in Cherokee County fell apart. Singleton began looking elsewhere.
Aware that land prices had defeated his first attempt to plant an independent African American colony, Singleton began looking for government land that his settlers could take up through the Homestead Act. He found some available land on what had been the old Kaw Indian Reservation around the town of Dunlap, Kansas, on the borders of Morris County and Lyon County. Dunlap was situated along the tracks of the Katy Railroad. The land was marginal, but in the spring of 1878 Singleton's settlers came to the area and founded the second Singleton Colony. Most settlers lived in dugouts during their first year on the Great Plains, but they stuck it out and made the colony a success.
[edit] The Exodusters, 1879-1880
In 1879, a mass movement of poor African Americans seeking to escape poverty and racial oppression in the South came to Kansas seeking freedom. These were the Exodusters. They had no direct connection with Singleton's organized colonization movement, but Singleton and his followers were sympathetic to their plight. Many white Kansans objected to the arrival of so many desperately poor blacks into their state, but Singleton stepped forward as a defender of the Exodusters and proclaimed that it was their right to try and find a better life for themselves in the American West. Singleton's proclamations became loud enough that in 1880 he was subpoenaed to appear before the United States Senate in Washington, D.C., to testify on the causes of the Great Exodus of African Americans to Kansas. Singleton rebuffed the efforts of Southern Senators to discredit the Exodus Movement and boasted of his own success in setting up independent black colonies. Singleton returned to Kansas as a nationally recognized spokesman for the Exodusters. Unfortunately, the arrival of so many poor blacks put more of a financial burden on the Singleton Colony than the original settlers could bear. By 1880, the Presbyterian Church had taken charitable control of the settlement and made plans to build a Freedmen's Academy in the town, but Singleton had no more dealings with his colony at Dunlap.
[edit] Final years
In 1881, Benjamin Singleton was seventy-two-years-old, and most people referred to him affectionately as "old Pap." He was still a formidable figure and used his reputation to try and unite all African Americans on a national level into an organization called the Colored United Links (CUL). The goal of the CUL was to combine the financial resources of all black people in America and use them to build black-owned businesses, factories, and trade schools. The CUL formed in Topeka, Kansas, in 1881 and held several conventions. The organization was locally successful enough that Republican Party officials in Kansas became concerned about the potential political strength of the CUL. Presidential candidate James B. Weaver of the Greenback Party met with CUL leaders, which led to talk of a fusion between the two groups. Unfortunately, CUL membership faltered after 1881, and the organization soon fell apart.
After the failure of the CUL, Singleton became convinced that African Americans would never be allowed to succeed in the United States. He persevered, and in 1883 Singleton briefly joined with St. Louis, Missouri, businessman Joseph Ware and African American minister John Williams in proposing that African Americans migrate to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The Cyprus idea was stillborn, and in 1885 Singleton moved to Kansas City where he made the final move to Pan-Africanism. In 1885 Singleton founded the United Transatlantic Society (UTS) with the goal of separating all blacks from the United States and relocating them in Africa. It was an idea that coincided and had some tenuous links with Bishop Henry McNeil Turner's own proposed African migration movement.
The UTS lasted till 1887 but never managed to send anyone to Africa. In poor health, Singleton retired from his life of activism. He raised his voice one final time in 1889 to call for a portion of the newly opening Oklahoma Territory to be reserved as an all-black state. Benjamin Singleton died in 1892. The location of his grave is unknown.
Benjamin Singleton was survived by several children. His son, Joshua Singleton, eventually settled in Allensworth, California, an African American agricultural settlement in Tulare County. Benjamin Singleton's great granddaughter (Joshua's granddaughter through his daughter Virginia Louise) was Midge Williams (1915-1952). Midge Williams was famous in the 1930s and 1940s as a Swing Jazz Music vocalist. She can be heard on vintage records from the era as Midge Williams and Her Jazz Jesters.
[edit] Misconceptions
Many older histories of Benjamin Singleton incorrectly state that the first Singleton Colony in Cherokee County was founded as early as 1873; that it was a success; and that it inspired the founding of the famous Nicodemus, Kansas, colony. In fact, some histories inexplicably credit Singleton as the founder of Nicodemus. Such misconceptions were based upon hearsay evidence and have since been refuted. Singleton did not establish his Real Estate Association prior to 1874 and did not make his first scouting trip to Kansas until 1876; the Singleton Colony in Cherokee County failed almost immediately; and Nicodemus was founded independently by black settlers from Kentucky in 1877, a full year before Singleton founded his successful colony at Dunlap.[1]
[edit] References
- Athearn, Robert G. In Search of Canaan: Black Migration to Kansas, 1879-80. Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1978.
- Entz, Gary R. "Benjamin 'Pap' Singleton: Father of the Kansas Exodus." in Portraits of African American Life Since 1865, ed. by Nina Mjagkij. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2003.
- Entz, Gary R. "Image and Reality on the Kansas Prairie: 'Pap' Singleton's Cherokee County Colony." Kansas History 19 (summer 1996): 124-139.
- Fleming, Walter P. "'Pap' Singleton: The Moses of the Colored Exodus," American Journal of Sociology. 15 (July 1909): 61-82.
- Garvin, Roy. "Benjamin, or 'Pap,' Singleton and his Followers." Journal of Negro History. 33 (January 1948): 7-23.
- Hickey, Joseph V. "'Pap' Singleton's Dunlap Colony: Relief Agencies and the Failure of a Black Settlement in Eastern Kansas." Great Plains Quarterly 11 (winter 1991): 23-36.
- Painter, Nell Irvin. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Entz, "Image and Reality on the Kansas Prairie," Kansas History 19 (summer 1996): 138-139.
