THE EXODUS TO THE WEST
Having come through the halcyon days of the Reconstruction only to find
themselves reduced almost to the status of slaves, many Negroes deserted
the South for the promising west to grow up with the country. The
immediate causes were doubtless political. _Bulldozing_, a rather
vague term, covering all such crimes as political injustice and
persecution, was the source of most complaint. The abridgment of the
Negroes' rights had affected them as a great calamity. They had learned
that voting is one of the highest privileges to be obtained in this life
and they wanted to go where they might still exercise that privilege. That
persecution was the main cause was disputed, however, as there were cases
of Negroes migrating from parts where no such conditions obtained. Yet
some of the whites giving their version of the situation admitted that
violent methods had been used so to intimidate the Negroes as to compel
them to vote according to the dictation of the whites. It was also learned
that the _bulldozers_ concerned in dethroning the non-taxpaying
blacks were an impecunious and irresponsible group themselves, led by men
of the wealthy class.[1]
Coming to the defense of the whites, some said that much of the
persecution with which the blacks were afflicted was due to the fear of
Negro uprisings, the terror of the days of slavery. The whites, however,
did practically nothing to remove the underlying causes. They did not
encourage education and made no efforts to cure the Negroes of faults for
which slavery itself was to be blamed and consequently could not get the
confidence of the blacks. The races tended rather to drift apart. The
Negroes lived in fear of reenslavement while the whites believed that the
war between the North and South would soon be renewed. Some Negroes
thinking likewise sought to go to the North to be among friends. The
blacks, of course, had come so to regard southern whites as their enemies
as to render impossible a voluntary division in politics.
Among the worst of all faults of the whites was their unwillingness to
labor and their tendency to do mischief.[2] As there were so many to live
on the labor of the Negroes they were reduced to a state a little better
than that of bondage. The master class was generally unfair to the blacks.
No longer responsible for them as slaves, the planters endeavored after
the war to get their labor for nothing. The Negroes themselves had no
land, no mules, no presses nor cotton gins, and they could not acquire
sufficient capital to obtain these things. They were made victims of fraud
in signing contracts which they could not understand and had to suffer the
consequent privations and want aggravated by robbery and murder by the Ku
Klux Klan.[3]
The murder of Negroes was common throughout the South and especially in
Louisiana. In 1875, General Sheridan said that as many as 3,500 persons
had been killed and wounded in that State, the great majority of whom
being Negroes; that 1,884 were killed and wounded in 1868, and probably
1,200 between 1868 and 1875. Frightful massacres occurred in the parishes
of Bossier, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Grant and Orleans. As most of these
murders were for political reasons, the offenders were regarded by their
communities as heroes rather than as criminals. A massacre of Negroes
began in the parish of St. Landry on the 28th of September and continued
for three days, resulting in the death of from 300 to 400. Thirteen
captives were taken from the jail and shot and as many as twenty-five dead
bodies were found burned in the woods. There broke out in the parish of
Bossier another three-day riot during which two hundred Negroes were
massacred. More than forty blacks were killed in the parish of Caddo
during the following month. In fact, the number of murders, maimings and
whippings during these months aggregated over one thousand.[4] The result
was that the intelligent Negroes were either intimidated or killed so that
the illiterate masses of Negro voters might be ordered to refrain from
voting the Republican ticket to strengthen the Democrats or be subjected
to starvation through the operation of the mischievous land tenure and
credit system. What was not done in 1868 to overthrow the Republican
regime was accomplished by a renewed and extended use of such drastic
measures throughout the South in 1876.
Certain whites maintained, however, that the unrest was due to the work of
radical politicians at the North, who had sent their emissaries south to
delude the Negroes into a fever of migration. Some said it was a scheme to
force the nomination of a certain Republican candidate for President in
1880. Others laid it to the charge of the defeated white and black
Republicans who had been thrown from power by the whites upon regaining
control of the reconstructed States.[5] A few insisted that a speech
delivered by Senator Windom in 1879 had given stimulus to the
migration.[6] Many southerners said that speculators in Kansas had adopted
this plan to increase the value of their land. Then there were other
theories as to the fundamental causes, each consisting of a charge of one
political faction that some other had given rise to the movement, varying
according as they were Bourbons, conservatives, native white Republicans,
carpet-bag Republicans, or black Republicans.
Impartial observers, however, were satisfied that the movement was
spontaneous to the extent that the blacks were ready and willing to go.
Probably no more inducement was offered them than to other citizens among
whom land companies sent agents to distribute literature. But the
fundamental causes of the unrest were economic, for since the Civil War
race troubles have never been sufficient to set in motion a large number
of Negroes. The discontent resulted from the land-tenure and credit
systems, which had restored slavery in a modified form.[7]
After the Civil War a few Negroes in those parts, where such opportunities
were possible, invested in real estate offered for sale by the
impoverished and ruined planters of the conquered commonwealths. When,
however, the Negroes lost their political power, their property was seized
on the plea for delinquent taxes and they were forced into the ghetto of
towns and cities, as it became a crime punishable by social proscription
to sell Negroes desirable residences. The aim was to debase all Negroes to
the status of menial labor in conformity with the usual contention of the
South that slavery is the normal condition of the blacks.[8]
Most of the land of the South, however, always remained as large tracts
held by the planters of cotton, who never thought of alienating it to the
Negroes to make them a race of small farmers. In fact, they had not the
means to make extensive purchases of land, even if the planters had been
disposed to transfer it. Still subject to the experimentation of white
men, the Negroes accepted the plan of paying them wages; but this failed
in all parts except in the sugar district, where the blacks remained
contented save when disturbed by political movements. They then tried all
systems of working on shares in the cotton districts; but this was finally
abandoned because the planters in some cases were not able to advance the
Negro tenant supplies, pending the growth of the crop, and some found the
Negro too indifferent and lazy to make the partnership desirable. Then
came the renting system which during the Reconstruction period was general
in the cotton districts. This system threw the tenant on his own
responsibility and frequently made him the victim of his own ignorance and
the rapacity of the white man. As exorbitant prices were charged for rent,
usually six to ten dollars an acre for land worth fifteen to thirty
dollars an acre, the Negro tenant not only did not accumulate anything but
had reason to rejoice at the end of the year, if he found himself out of
debt.[9]
Along with this went the credit system which furnished the capstone of the
economic structure so harmful to the Negro tenant. This system made the
Negroes dependent for their living on an advance of supplies of food,
clothing or tools during the year, secured by a lien on the crop when
harvested. As the Negroes had no chance to learn business methods during
the days of slavery, they fell a prey to a class of loan sharks, harpies
and vampires, who established stores everywhere to extort from these
ignorant tenants by the mischievous credit system their whole income
before their crops could be gathered.[10] Some planters who sympathized
with the Negroes brought forward the scheme of protecting them by
advancing certain necessities at more reasonable prices. As the planter
himself, however, was subject to usury, the scheme did not give much
relief. The Negroes' crop, therefore, when gathered went either to the
merchant or to the planter to pay the rent; for the merchant's supplies
were secured by a mortgage on the tenant's personal property and a pledge
of the growing crop. This often prevented Negro laborers in the employ of
black tenants from getting their wages at the end of the year, for,
although the laborer had also a lien on the growing crop, the merchant and
the planter usually had theirs recorded first and secured thereby the
support of the law to force the payment of their claims. The Negro tenant
then began the year with three mortgages, covering all he owned, his labor
for the coming year and all he expected to acquire during that
twelvemonth. He paid "one-third of his product for the use of the land, he
paid an exorbitant fee for recording the contract by which he paid his
pound of flesh; he was charged two or three times as much as he ought to
pay for ginning his cotton; and, finally, he turned over his crop to be
eaten up in commissions, if any was still left to him."[11]
The worst of all results from this iniquitous system was its effect on the
Negroes themselves. It made the Negroes extravagant and unscrupulous.
Convinced that no share of their crop would come to them when harvested,
they did not exert themselves to produce what they could. They often
abandoned their crops before harvest, knowing that they had already spent
them. In cases, however, where the Negro tenants had acquired mules,
horses or tools upon which the speculator had a mortgage, the blacks were
actually bound to their landlords to secure the property. It was soon
evident that in the end the white man himself was the loser by this evil
system. There appeared waste places in the country. Improvements were
wanting, land lay idle for lack of sufficient labor, and that which was
cultivated yielded a diminishing return on account of the ignorance and
improvidence of those tilling it. These Negroes as a rule had lost the
ambition to become landowners, preferring to invest their surplus money in
personal effects; and in the few cases where the Negroes were induced to
undertake the buying of land, they often tired of the responsibility and
gave it up.[12]
There began in the spring of 1879, therefore, an emigration of the Negroes
from Louisiana and Mississippi to Kansas. For some time there was a
stampede from several river parishes in Louisiana and from counties just
opposite them in Mississippi. It was estimated that from five to ten
thousand left their homes before the movement could be checked. Persons of
influence soon busied themselves in showing the blacks the necessity for
remaining in the South and those who had not then gone or prepared to go
were persuaded to return to the plantations. This lull in the excitement,
however, was merely temporary, for many Negroes had merely returned home
to make more extensive preparations for leaving the following spring. The
movement was accelerated by the work of two Negro leaders of some note,
Moses Singleton, of Tennessee, the self-styled Moses of the Exodus; and
Henry Adams, of Louisiana, who credited himself with having organized for
this purpose as many as 98,000 blacks.
Taking this movement seriously a convention of the leading whites and
blacks was held at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the sixth of May, 1879. This
body was controlled mainly by unsympathetic but diplomatic whites. General
N.R. Miles, of Yazoo County, Mississippi, was elected president and A.W.
Crandall, of Louisiana, secretary. After making some meaningless but
eloquent speeches the convention appointed a committee on credentials and
adjourned until the following day. On reassembling Colonel W.L. Nugent,
chairman of the committee, presented a certain preamble and
resolutions citing causes of the exodus and suggesting remedies. Among the
causes, thought he, were: "the low price of cotton and the partial failure
of the crop, the irrational system of planting adopted in some sections
whereby labor was deprived of intelligence to direct it and the presence
of economy to make it profitable, the vicious system of credit fostered by
laws permitting laborers and tenants to mortgage crops before they were
grown or even planted; the apprehension on the part of many colored people
produced by insidious reports circulated among them that their civil and
political rights were endangered or were likely to be; the hurtful and
false rumors diligently disseminated, that by emigrating to Kansas the
Negroes would obtain lands, mules and money from the government without
cost to themselves, and become independent forever."[13]
Referring to the grievances and proposing a redress, the committee
admitted that errors had been committed by the whites and blacks alike, as
each in turn had controlled the government of the States there
represented. The committee believed that the interests of planters and
laborers, landlords and tenants were identical; that they must prosper or
suffer together; and that it was the duty of the planters and landlords of
the State there represented to devise and adopt some contract by which
both parties would receive the full benefit of labor governed by
intelligence and economy. The convention affirmed that the Negro race had
been placed by the constitution of the United States and the States there
represented, and the laws thereof, on a plane of absolute equality with
the white race; and declared that the Negro race should be accorded the
practical enjoyment of all civil and political rights guaranteed by the
said constitutions and laws. The convention pledged itself to use whatever
of power and influence it possessed to protect the Negro race against all
dangers in respect to the fair expression of their wills at the polls,
which they apprehended might result from fraud, intimidation or
_bulldozing_ on the part of the whites. And as there could be no
liberty of action without freedom of thought, they demanded that all
elections should be fair and free and that no repressive measures should
be employed by the Negroes "to deprive their own race in part of the
fullest freedom in the exercise of the highest right of citizenship."[14]
The committee then recommended the abolition of the mischievous credit
system, called upon the Negroes to contradict false reports as to crimes
of the whites against them and, after considering the Negroes' right to
emigrate, urged that they proceed about it with reason. Ex-Governor Foote,
of Mississippi, submitted a plan to establish in every county a committee,
composed of men who had the confidence of both whites and blacks, to be
auxiliary to the public authorities, to listen to complaints and
arbitrate, advise, conciliate or prosecute, as each case should demand.
But unwilling to do more than make temporary concessions, the majority
rejected Foote's plan.[15]
The whites thought also to stop the exodus by inducing the steamboat lines
not to furnish the emigrants' transportation. Negroes were also
detained by writs obtained by preferring against them false charges. Some,
who were willing to let the Negroes go, thought of importing white and
Chinese labor to take their places. Hearing of the movement and thinking
that he could offer a remedy, Senator D.W. Voorhees, of Indiana,
introduced a resolution in the United States Senate authorizing an inquiry
into the causes of the exodus.[16] The movement, however, could not be
stopped and it became so widespread that the people in general were forced
to give it serious thought. Men in favor of it declared their views,
organized migration societies and appointed agents to promote the
enterprise of removing the freedmen from the South.
Becoming a national measure, therefore, the migration evoked expressions
from Frederick Douglass and Richard T. Greener, two of the most prominent
Negroes in the United States. Douglass believed that the exodus was
ill-timed. He saw in it the abandonment of the great principle of
protection to persons and property in every State of the Union. He felt
that if the Negroes could not be protected in every State, the Federal
Government was shorn of its rightful dignity and power, the late rebellion
had triumphed, the sovereign of the nation was an empty vessel, and the
power and authority in individual States were supreme. He thought,
therefore, that it was better for the Negroes to stay in the South than to
go North, as the South was a better market for the black man's labor.
Douglass believed that the Negroes should be warned against a nomadic
life. He did not see any more benefit in the migration to Kansas than he
had years before in the emigration to Africa. The Negroes had a monopoly
of labor at the South and they would be too insignificant in numbers to
have such an advantage in the North. The blacks were then potentially able
to elect members of Congress in the South but could not hope to exercise
such power in other parts. Douglass believed, moreover, that this exodus
did not conform to the "laws of civilizing migration," as the carrying of
a language, literature and the like of a superior race to an inferior; and
it did not conform to the geographic laws assuring healthy migration from
east to west in the same latitude, as this was from south to north, far
away from the climate in which the migrants were born.[17]
The exodus of the Negroes, however, was heartily endorsed by Richard T.
Greener. He did not consider it the best remedy for the lawlessness of the
South but felt that it was a salutary one. He did not expect the United
States to give the oppressed blacks in the South the protection they
needed, as there is no abstract limit to the right of a State to do
anything. He would not encourage the Negro to lead a wandering life but in
that instance such advice was gratuitous. Greener failed to find any
analogy between African colonization and migration to the West as the
former was promoted by slaveholders to remove the free Negro from the
country and the other sprang spontaneously from the class considering
itself aggrieved. "One led out of the country to a comparative wilderness;
the other directed to a better land and larger opportunities." He did not
see how the migration to the North would diminish the potentiality of the
Negro in politics, for Massachusetts first elected Negroes to her General
Court, Ohio had nominated a Negro representative and Illinois another. He
showed also that Mr. Douglass's objection on the grounds of migrating from
south to north rather than from east to west was not historical. He
thought little of the advice to the Negroes to stick and fight it out, for
he had evidence that the return of the unreconstructed Confederates to
power in the South would for generations doom the blacks to political
oppression unknown in the annals of a free country.
Greener showed foresight here in urging the Negroes to take up desirable
western land before it would be preempted by foreigners. As the Swedes,
Norwegians, Irish, Hebrews and others were organizing societies and
raising funds to promote the migration of their needy to these lands, why
should the Negroes be debarred? Greener had no apprehension as to the
treatment the Negroes would receive in the West. He connected the movement
too with the general welfare of the blacks, considering it a promising
sign that they had learned to run from persecution. Having passed their
first stage, that of appealing to philanthropists, the Negroes were then
appealing to themselves.[18]
Feeling very much as Greener did, these Negroes rushed into Kansas and
neighboring States in 1879. So many came that some systematic relief had
to be offered. Mrs. Comstock, a Quaker lady, organized for this purpose
the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association, to raise funds and secure for
them food and clothing. In this work she had the support of Governor J.P.
Saint John. There was much suffering upon arriving in Kansas but relief
came from various sources. During this year $40,000 and 500,000 pounds of
clothing, bedding and the like were used. England contributed 50,000
pounds of goods and $8,000. In 1879, the refugees took up 20,000 acres of
land and brought 3,000 under cultivation. The Relief Association at first
furnished them with supplies, teams and seed, which they profitably used
in the production of large crops. Desiring to establish homes, they built
300 cabins and saved $30,000 the first year. In April, 1,300 refugees had
gathered around Wyandotte alone. Up to that date 60,000 had come to
Kansas, nearly 40,000 of whom arrived in destitute condition. About 30,000
settled in the country, some on rented lands and others on farms as
laborers, leaving about 25,000 in cities, where on account of crowded
conditions and the hard weather many greatly suffered. Upon finding
employment, however, they all did well, most of them becoming
self-supporting within one year after their arrival, and few of them
coming back to the Relief Association for aid the second time.[19] This
was especially true of those in Topeka, Parsons and Kansas City.
The people of Kansas did not encourage the blacks to come. They even sent
messengers to the South to advise the Negroes not to migrate and, if they
did come anyway, to provide themselves with equipment. When they did
arrive, however, they welcomed and assisted them as human beings. Under
such conditions the blacks established five or six important colonies in
Kansas alone between 1879 and 1880. Chief among these were Baxter Springs,
Nicodemus, Morton City and Singleton. Governor Saint John, of Kansas,
reported that they seemed to be honest and of good habits, were certainly
industrious and anxious to work, and so far as they had been tried had
proved to be faithful and excellent laborers. Giving his observations
there, Sir George Campbell bore testimony to the same report.[20] Out of
these communities have come some most progressive black citizens. In
consideration of their desirability their white neighbors have given them
their cooperation, secured to them the advantages of democratic education,
and honored a few of them with some of the most important positions in the
State.
Although the greater number of these blacks went to Kansas, about 5,000 of
them sought refuge in other Western States. During these years, Negroes
gradually invaded Indian Territory and increased the number already
infiltrated into and assimilated by the Indian nations. When assured of
their friendly attitude toward the Indians, the Negroes were accepted by
them as equals, even during the days of slavery when the blacks on account
of the cruelties of their masters escaped to the wilderness.[21] Here we
are at sea as to the extent to which this invasion and subsequent
miscegenation of the black and red races extended for the reason that
neither the Indians nor these migrating Negroes kept records and the
United States Government has been disposed to classify all mixed breeds in
tribes as Indians. Having equal opportunity among the red men, the Negroes
easily succeeded. A traveler in Indian Territory in 1880 found their
condition unusually favorable. The cosy homes and promising fields of
these freedmen attracted his attention as striking evidences of their
thrift. He saw new fences, additions to cabins, new barns, churches and
school-houses indicating prosperity. Given every privilege which the
Indians themselves enjoyed, the Negroes could not be other than
contented.[22]
It was very unfortunate, however, that in 1889, when by proclamation of
President Harrison the Oklahoma Territory was thrown open, the intense
race prejudice of the white immigrants and the rule of the mob prevented a
larger number of Negroes from settling in that promising commonwealth.
Long since extensively advertised as valuable, the land of Oklahoma had
become a coveted prize for the adventurous squatters invading the
territory in defiance of the law before it was declared open for
settlement. The rush came with all the excitement of pioneer days
redoubled. Stakes were set, parcels of land were claimed, cabins were
constructed in an hour and towns grew up in a day.[23] Then came
conflicting claims as to titles and rights of preemption culminating in
fighting and bloodshed. And worst of all, with this disorderly group there
developed the fixed policy of eliminating the Negroes entirely.
The Negro, however, was not entirely excluded. Some had already come into
the territory and others in spite of the barriers set up continued to
come.[24] With the cooperation of the Indians, with whom they easily
amalgamated they readjusted themselves and acquired sufficient wealth to
rise in the economic world. Although not generally fortunate, a number of
them have coal and oil lands from which they obtain handsome incomes and a
few, like Sara Rector, have actually become rich. Dishonest white men with
the assistance of unprincipled officials have defrauded and are still
endeavoring to defraud these Negroes of their property, lending them money
secured by mortgages and obtaining for themselves through the courts
appointments as the Negroes' guardians. They turn out to be the robbers of
the Negroes, in case they do not live in a community where an enlightened
public opinion frowns down upon this crime.
During the later eighties and the early nineties there were some other
interstate movements worthy of notice here. The mineral wealth of the
Appalachian mountains was being exploited. Foreigners, at first, were
coming into this country in sufficiently large numbers to meet the demand;
but when this supply became inadequate, labor agents appealed to the
blacks in the South. Negroes then flocked to the mining districts of
Birmingham, Alabama, and to East Tennessee. A large number also migrated
from North Carolina and Virginia to West Virginia and some few of the same
group to Southern Ohio to take the places of those unreasonable strikers
who often demanded larger increases in wages than the income of their
employers could permit. Many of these Negroes came to West Virginia as is
evidenced by the increase in Negro population of that State. West Virginia
had a Negro population of 17,980 in 1870; 25,886 in 1880; 32,690 in 1890;
43,499 in 1900; and 64,173 in 1910.[25]
[Footnote 1: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 222; _Nation_, XXVIII,
pp. 242, 386.]
[Footnote 2: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 69.]
[Footnote 3: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 375.]
[Footnote 4: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 374.]
[Footnote 5: American _Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 34.]
[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, XI, p. 33.]
[Footnote 7: _Nation_, XXVIII, pp. 242, 386.]
[Footnote 8: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 378.]
[Footnote 9: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 225.]
[Footnote 10: _Ibid._, LXIV, p. 226.]
[Footnote 11: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 224.]
[Footnote 12: _The Atlantic Monthly_, XLIV, p. 223.]
[Footnote 13: _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_, May 6, 1879.]
[Footnote 14: _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_, May 6, 1879.]
[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, May 6, 1879.]
[Footnote 16: _Congressional Record_, 46th Congress, 2d Session, Vol.
X, p. 104.]
[Footnote 17: For a detailed statement of Douglass's views, see the
_American Journal of Social Science_, XI, pp. 1-21.]
[Footnote 18: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, pp. 22-35.]
[Footnote 19: Williams, _History of the Negro_, II, p. 379.]
[Footnote 20: "In Kansas City," said Sir George Campbell, "and still more
in the suburbs of Kansas proper the Negroes are much more numerous than I
have yet seen. On the Kansas side they form quite a large proportion of
the population. They are certainly subject to no indignity or ill usage.
There the Negroes seem to have quite taken to work at trades." He saw them
doing building work, both alone and assisting white men, and also painting
and other tradesmen's work. On the Kansas side, he found a Negro
blacksmith, with an establishment of his own. He had come from Tennessee
after emancipation. He had not been back there and did not want to go. He
also saw black women keeping apple stalls and engaged in other such
occupations so as to leave him under the impression that in the States,
which he called intermediate between black and white countries the blacks
evidently had no difficulty.--See _American Journal of Social
Science_, XI, pp. 32, 33.]
[Footnote 21: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 33.]
[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, XI, p. 33.]
[Footnote 23: _Spectator_, LXVII, p. 571; _Dublin Review_, CV,
p. 187; _Cosmopolitan_, VII, p. 460; _Nation_, LXVIII, p. 279.]
[Footnote 24: According to the _United States Census, of 1910_, there
are 137,612 Negroes in Oklahoma.]
[Footnote 25: See _Censuses_ of the United States.]