Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/84

 70 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

mental causes of the movement lay in the disturbed conditions in the South — social, economic, and political. The credit and crop-lien system which had been substituted for the slave-labor system had worked badly ; the "40 acres and a mule" delusion, the Freedmen's Bank failure, and educational disappointments had discouraged the race; the negro-republican governments in the South had all fallen, and now the blacks declared that legal pro- tection was often denied them ; the failure within ten years of all the plans for the immediate elevation of the blacks to the position of the whites had left the entire race restless and anxious for a change. The circulars sent out by Singleton had penetrated into all parts of the black South, and far and wide had spread exagger- ated reports of his work. Speculators in western lands, agents for railroads and steamboat companies that were anxious for passenger traffic, negro preachers and white and black politicians, now out of jobs, took advantage of the uneasy feeling and stirred up the blacks of the far South to go to "Sunny Kansas."

As a result there began in February, 1879, ^ heavy migration from the black districts bordering on the Mississippi River, which continued, with some interruptions, for two years. It was a sur- prise to the white South and even more of a surprise to Kansas. Pap Singleton, perhaps the immediate cause of the exodus, was for a while lost sight of in the excitement that arose in Kansas when the first boatloads of unexpected negroes arrived. The exodus from the lower South overshadowed the smaller one from Tennessee and Kentucky. However, Pap worked on as usual, carrying people from Tennessee to Dunlap, Nicodemus, and Singleton colonies. Circulars were sent among the Mississippi and Louisiana "exodusters" ^^ to herald the virtues of the several negro colonies. The name of Singleton is attached to all of them and he always signs himself as "Father of the Exodus," or "Moses of the Colored Exodus." "

Not all of the negroes from Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louis-

" This term was applied to the emigrants by themselves ; the whites called them "refugees," "exodites," or "exodusters."

^ Circulars of Nicodemus, Dunlap, Dodge City, etc., 1879 ; Singleton's Scrap- book, pp. 18, 28, 41.