Exodusters
Amy Walker
Karen Davis
Lyndsay Cast
Story in Harcourt Literature Book
5th Grade
Background

Radical Republican rule in the South collapsed which
led to thousands of African Americans migrating
West.

“These migrants became known as the Exodusters
because they were making their exodus from the
South-in search of a haven from racism and poverty.”
-Tindall and Shi, America, pg. 764-765

“Between 1865 and 1880 forty thousand blacks
settled in Kansas. Of these, six thousand of them
participated in the Exodus of 1879.”
-Litwack, Touble in Mind, pg. 484
Timeline








1809-Benjamin “Pap” Singleton was born a slave in Tennessee
1860s-After escaping slavery and the Civil War, Singleton returned to
Tennessee to organize an effort to buy up Tennessee farmland for
blacks.
1877-Singleton and his partner, Columbus Johnson, advertised for
homesteaders to start an all black community in Kansas.
1878- He led his first party of 200 to Kansas and bought 7500 acres that
had been an Indian reservation for a $1.25/acre.
1879- “The Great Exodus”- 50,000 blacks fled to Kansas, Missouri,
Indiana, and Illinois.
Late 1879-Whites closed access to Mississippi River and threatened to
sink boats carrying black colonists from the South to the West.
1880-Singleton was called to testify due to this alarming migration
from the South.
Early 1880s-The black exodus to the west had died out due to the
living conditions on the plains.
Handbills encouraged black families to move to Kansas.

Kansasmemory.org
Discussion Questions
1.
In the late 1870s what would motivate
Southern black families to move to
Kansas?
2.
We have discussed the meaning of
immigration and why people migrate
from one place to another. Why do you
think black people responded to these
handbills in such great numbers?
3.
What persuasive techniques did the
author of this handbill use?
4.
Based on these handbills, what would be
some pros and cons to moving to
Kansas?
Piece 1
ANALYZING PHOTOGRAPHS
“Piecing together the puzzle”
Piece 2
ANALYZING PHOTOGRAPHS
“Piecing together the puzzle”
Piece 3
ANALYZING PHOTOGRAPHS
“Piecing together the puzzle”
Piece 4
ANALYZING PHOTOGRAPHS
“Piecing together the puzzle”
ANALYZING PHOTOGRAPHS
“All of the Pieces Come Together”
Comparing and Contrasting

Educational
Opportunities
African American School
Dunlap, Kansas 1880
(kansasmemory.org)
Fort Taylor African American School
Alabama 1883
(Summary of Hernando County School Board Minutes)
The End of the Exodusters
Discussion Question
Using weather records, and what you learned about
Exodusters, discuss possible reasons why the Exoduster
Movement ended.
Academic Extensions
Town of Nicodemus: Nicodemus Historical
Society
 Traveling Trunk for Educators
 Going Home to Nicodemus, Daniel Chu and Bill
Shaw (at IRC)
 Further research on Emancipation Day
 Nicodemus Blues (Baseball Team) turned into the
Kansas City Monarchs: Satchel Paige

Bibliography







Chu, Daniel, and Bill Shaw. Going Home to Nicodemus, Julian Messner:
New Jersey, 1995.
Kansas Historical Society. “Kansas Memory”. 2007-2012,
http://www.kansasmemory.org (accessed January 24, 2012)
Litwack, Leon F. Trouble in Mind. Vintage Books: New York, 1998.
Pasco County Historical Preservation Society. “Hernando County Schools”.
2010, http://pascocemeteries.org/smry_schl_1877_1887_revised.html
(accessed January 24, 2012)
Public Broadcast System. www.pbs.org (accessed January 24, 2012)
Schlissel, Lillian. Black Frontiers, Alladin Publishers, 2000.
Tindall, George Brown, and David Emory Shi. America: A Narrative
History. Norton: New York, 2010.