The American West Topic Summaries

The Exoduster Movement (1879)

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  • Exodusters were African Americans who migrated from the South to Kansas after the Civil War. The activist Benjamin Singleton encouraged this migration to Kansas as a place of opportunity for ex-slaves. • By 1880, around 43,000 Black Americans had settled in Kansas.
  • The biblical story of Exodus inspired many to migrate, seeing Kansas as a ‘Promised Land.’ 
  • Homesteading opportunities were available, but many ex-slaves struggled as crops often failed, leading to food shortages and deaths. The Kansas government established associations to provide temporary shelter and food aid to struggling migrants.
  • Some ex-slaves faced intimidation and violence from former owners and were forced into sharecropping whereby they rented land instead of owning it.
  • Many white settlers opposed their arrival, clinging to the ideology of Manifest Destiny for themselves and resenting Black migration.

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