Exodusters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Exodusters was a name given to black Americans who fled the Southern United States for Kansas in 1879 and 1880. After the end of Reconstruction, racial oppression and rumors of the reinstitution of slavery led many freedmen to seek a new place to live. Many settled in Kansas because of its fame as the land of the abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859). The state was reputed to be more progressive and tolerant than most others. Separatist leaders such as Benjamin "Pap" Singleton had promoted it among black Americans.

The Kansas Exodus was an unorganized mass migration which began in 1879. Local relief agencies, such as the Kansas Freedman's Relief Association, did try to provide aid, but they could never do enough to meet the needs of the impoverished migrants. The Exodusters continued coming to Kansas through the summer of 1880; then the movement died out.

[edit] Academic references

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• Athearn, Robert G. "Black Exodus: The Migration of 1879." The Prairie Scout 3 (1975): 86-97.

• Jack, Bryan M. "The St. Louis African American Community and the Exodusters." Columbia and London: The University of Missouri Press, 2008.

• Painter, Nell Irvin. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1977.

• Schwendemann, Glen. "Nicodemus: Negro Haven on the Solomon." Kansas Historical Quarterly 34 (spring 1968): 10-31.

• Schwendemann, Glen. "St. Louis and the 'Exodusters' of 1879." Journal of Negro History 46 (January 1961): 32-46.

• Schwendemann, Glen. "Wyandotte and the First 'Exodusters' of 1879." Kansas Historical Quarterly 26 (autumn 1960): 233-249.

• Strickland, Arvarh E. "Toward the Promised Land: The Exodus to Kansas and Afterward." Missouri Historical Review 69 (July 1975): 376-412.

• Van Deusen, John G. "The Exodusters of 1879." Journal of Negro History 21 (April 1936): 111-129.

• Williams, Nudie E. "Black Newspapers and the Exodusters of 1879." Kansas History 8 (winter 1985/86): 217-225

[edit] Exodusters in fiction

• Gabriel's Story, by David Anthony Durham.

[edit] External links

• (PBS The West "Exodusters")
• (Kansas State Historical Society, Exoduster Flier)
• Campney, Brent M. S. This is Not Dixie Southern Spaces 6 September 2007