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Welcome to Civics and Coffee, a history podcast. The show all about United States history delivered to you in the time it takes to enjoy your morning cup of coffee. I'm your host, Alicia, a historian trained in United States history with a passion for telling both the known and unknown parts of America's past. So grab your coffee and get ready for some bite sized history. Hey everyone. Welcome back. In 1879, Indiana Senator Daniel Voorhees launched an investigation to understand the cause behind what was then believed to be a peculiar phenomenon as outlined in the resolution establishing the committee. Quote, whereas large numbers of Negroes from the Southern states are immigrating to the northern states, and whereas it is currently alleged that they are induced to do so by the unjust and cruel conduct of their white fellow citizens towards them in the south and by the denial or abridgment of their personal and political rights and privileges. Therefore, be it resolved that a committee of five members of this body be appointed by its presiding officer, whose duty it shall be to investigate the causes which have led to the aforesaid immigration and to report the same to the Senate, and said committee shall have power to send for persons and papers and to sit at any time. End quote. News had trickled into the nation's capital that a significant number of freedmen and their families had gathered in the city of St. Louis on their way toward Kansas, all in the name of setting up their own communities. Why they chose to do this, and whether a loss of their civil or political rights motivated their decision, would drive the Senate investigation into what would later become known as the Exodusters Movement. Yet many may be unfamiliar with the story of black migration that predates the Great Migration by several decades. So this week I am diving into the Exoduster movement. What was it? How did it start? Who was involved, and what did it achieve? Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let's do this. The decision to uproot one's life and travel hundreds or thousands of miles was not made lightly. In an article exploring the exoduster movement, historian Selena Sandifer argues that there were a combination of factors compelling black immigration. But primary among them included their frustration about their lack of political and economic liberty in conjunction with the ongoing reign of terror they faced by their white neighbors. And as we've explored here, in the earliest moments of Reconstruction, black Americans had reason to believe that their moment had finally arrived. After breaking free of the chains of bondage and proving their loyalty to the country, many by fighting on behalf of the Union during the Civil War, millions of black Americans were Ready to assume their rightful place as citizens of the United States. What they were met with instead was incredible disappointment. There were unfulfilled promises of land redistribution, extension of voting rights that were quickly thwarted by the rise of white supremacist groups and the rise of tenant farming, which put freedmen and their families in economic subservient positions, frequently to the same people who used to, quote, unquote, own them. Conversations about immigrating out of the south were long in the making. As early as 1866, during the Tennessee State convention of colored Men, Friedman had a sense early on that while the federal government up north may have granted them certain freedoms, on paper, their lived experience was altogether different. In just a two year period in the state, between 1867 and 1869, 179 murders were committed, mostly against black Americans, with only 11 being tried in court. Of those tried, zero were convicted. And while I'm using Tennessee as an example here, we know that this is unfortunately all too representative of what millions of newly emancipated black Americans faced throughout the south and no doubt contributed to their desire to relocate. Faced with lack of access to equal education, decent wages, political rights, and risking personal safety, Friedman and their families started seriously considering what other options they had. So who exactly were the exodusters? According to historian Brian Jack, a significant majority of exodusters were divided amongst two sets of travelers. Those coming primarily from the state of Texas, known as Texodusters and traveling by train, and those coming from Louisiana and Mississippi who traveled by steamship and who arrived in St. Louis before carrying on to Kansas. This was not an organized endeavor, but truly a grassroots effort championed by a few key figures like Benjamin Singleton. Benjamin Pap Singleton was a former slave who had successfully run away via the underground railroad during the Civil War. Some sources say he made it as far away as Canada, while other sources claim he ran a boarding house in Detroit during the war. Known as a skilled cabinet maker and undertaker, Singleton relocated to Tennessee after the war and established a real estate state and homestead association in 1869, where he began organizing his black neighbors and made efforts to help them resettle in Kansas. In 1873, he led a small group, just about 300 Southern black Americans, to settle in Cherokee County, Kansas, which eventually became known as Singleton County. Singleton, who took to calling himself the Moses of the colored exodus, was a believer in economic self sufficiency. He believed that if black Americans were able to gain access to tillable land, they would be able to succeed as farmers. And thus he pushed for free black Americans to Work towards getting land for themselves and away from situations where they were paying someone else for its use. While Singleton undoubtedly wanted to ensure his community had a chance at economic prosperity, there were other motivations at play. According to historian Nell Irvin Painter, Singleton also wanted to teach his white southern neighbors a lesson, as she argues in her book about the exoduster movement, quote, by taking the black people out of the south, he would show southern whites that they must live with their black brothers in tranquility. End quote. Singleton wasn't alone in his push for black relocation. Civil War veteran Henry Adams established a semi private group known as the Colored Men's Protective union. Totaling roughly 500 members, all fellow black veterans, the group's aim was to evaluate the conditions of the freedmen and women throughout the south and assess whether there were any places in the former Confederacy where black Americans might be able to thrive. They quickly determined that given the political and economic conditions throughout the south, there lacked a place where freed people could live peacefully and expect any chance at prosperity. The men then formed a separate group called the Colonization Council, who decided that they would appeal directly to the president and Congress for help in safeguarding their civil and political rights if President Hayes or Congress was unable or unwilling to help. The group next planned to ask the federal government to set aside a tract of land that could be used for them to live with their families. If this too was rebuffed, the group next planned to ask for funding to relocate to Liberia on the western coast of Africa. Adams submitted his letter to the Senate and to the president, with each plea included and over 98,000 names of individuals who expressed their desire to leave the South. And while families did migrate to Liberia, most opted to stay within the United States and figure out how to get to the greener pastures of Kansas. What was it about Kansas that was so attractive to the exodusters? Location for one, as formerly enslaved individuals, these families did not have a whole lot in terms of resources. It would be much harder to relocate to somewhere as far away as Canada or California, for example, than it was to get to Kansas. The Homestead act also made the pathway to land ownership, at least on the surface, much more egalitarian. When the federal government failed to fulfill its promise of reallocating former Confederate land holdings to freedmen for farming, the Homestead act represented an opportunity for black Americans to become landowners and earn a decent living without having to worry about handing over a majority of the annual crop yield or getting cheated out of their fair share. Of course, even the most basic of homesteads required supplies and equipment that black Americans had little to no mechanism with which to pay. But when compared to the sharecropping and tenant farming economic systems that were dominating the southern region, homesteads represented a better opportunity. However, many also saw Kansas as a place of refuge that would be kind to members of their race. This was, of course, viewing Kansas with rose colored glasses and illustrates just how bad things had deteriorated in the south. Men and women were willing to risk their futures and the future of their children, often without the necessary funds or resources it would require to set up a new home in a foreign territory, on the hope and belief that Kansas had to be better than where they were. As the calendar turned from 1878 to 1879, and encouraged by Minnesota senator William Windom, who issued his windom resolution on January 16th encouraging black Americans to vacate the south, freedmen and their families prepared for their journey. The exodus began slowly, with only a few landing in St. Louis via steamboat at a time. Eventually, however, these numbers grew to be significant, and more than 6,000 black exodusters would migrate to Kansas throughout the year. As their size increased, the exodusters began to draw the attention of southern whites, many of whom believed that they were being lured away for political purposes. Northern politicians refuted these charges instead, suggesting that perhaps the true motivations behind the freedmen's decision to vacate the former confederacy had to do more with the deplorable conditions they faced in communities throughout the south and less to do with some coordinated conspiracy over votes. And while white southerners cared very little for their black neighbors, they nevertheless relied on their cheap labor. Viewing the exodus as a potential threat to their labor supply if left unchecked, several southerners petitioned their political leaders to act in St. Louis, a city heavily tied to the cotton crop and by extension, reliant on the cheap labor provided by freedmen and women. This meant trying to stymie the exodus. The mayor tried all sorts of creative tactics to try to prevent exodusters from landing in St. Louis, including threatening to isolate everybody on a local island and attempting to charge the steamboat captains with violating proper laws. Since many who arrived in St. Louis didn't have enough money to get to their final destination in Kansas, ship captains avoided these charges by providing proof that their passengers did actually pay for their tickets. Those against the movement also resorted to launching propaganda campaigns in newspapers, discouraging potential migrants from making the journey, jailing individuals for non payment of debt in order to prevent them from leaving, and of course, the tried and true solution when attempting to extract compliance violence. But as hard as some Work to convince freedmen to stay in the south. There were others working just as hard to convince black families that it was worth the money, the miles, and the risk for those who were stuck. In St. Louis, local residents coalesced and established committees that provided aid to freedmen and women so that they could survive long enough to get to their final destination. These committees collected money and food from local neighbors and members of the community who were sympathetic to the cause. The biggest problem for Exodusters landing in St. Louis was the lack of adequate shelter, especially as their numbers increased and were delayed in their final leg toward Kansas. The city lacked sufficient accommodations for the influx of new residents, and several freedmen were forced to sleep outside. This became a hot button issue and was used in attempt to undercut support for the exoduster movement by insinuating that donated funds to support the exodusters had been mishandled. Opposition to the exoduster movement wasn't limited to white southerners reliant on cheap labor. Several members of the black elite, including Frederick Douglass, were against the exodusters, believing that freedmen should stay and fight for their rights in the south and that by leaving, it made the fight for civil and political rights for those left behind that much harder. Regardless of the opposition, the exoduster movement began to subside by the summer. Still unsatisfied with the loss of the thousands of potential black laborers, white southerners continued to pressure their political leaders, and by the end of 1879, Indiana Senator Daniel Voorhees formed a committee to investigate why exactly so many families packed up their lives and headed north. The committee was made up of three democrats and two Republicans. Joining Voorhees was Zebulon Vance of North Carolina and George Pendleton of Ohio. On the Republican side was William Windom of Minnesota and Henry Blair of New Hampshire. As I read at the top of the episode, their charge was to determine the motivations behind the move and to report back to the senate their findings. The group began hearing testimony on January 19, 1880, and interviewed a total of 153 black and white witnesses from states including North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Missouri, and Louisiana. The committee did a decent job of interviewing a broad cross section of individuals and sat down with witnesses who came from a diverse set of economic backgrounds that included lawyers, teachers, publishers, and former elected officials. Unfortunately, despite the ample testimony of witnesses that clearly outlined the pervasive violence, harassment, and intimidation black Americans face regularly for doing nothing more than existing, the senate committee devolved into little more than a blame game. Reading the majority and minority reports, however, is telling. Much like today, you can generally get a sense of when someone has the facts on their side and when someone is trying to bait you with an emotional argument. The Majority Summation of the Investigation the Democrats, who were convinced that the cause of the exodus was a political ploy by Republicans, submitted a five page report citing no testimony and dismissed many of the issues raised by stating they were either unable to independently verify this was truly an issue such as black men being excluded from juries, or that the problem was the same for black and white residents as it related to insufficient schools, for example. Flipping to the minorities report, however, is a compelling 17 page summation of the findings filled with cited testimony. The senators let the witnesses explain for themselves why they chose to leave the South. When asked why he chose to leave, Henry Adams told the committee, we said that the whole south, every state in the south, had got into the hands of the very men that held us slaves from one thing to another. And we thought that the men held us slaves was holding the reins of government over our heads in every respect, even the constable up to the governor. We felt we had almost as well be slaves under these men. In regard to the whole matter that was discussed, it came up in every council. Then we said there was no hope for us and we had better go. The entire report is available online, free to read, and I recommend giving it a look when you get a chance. It is a fascinating view into a critical moment in our past. While nothing of substance came from the committee, it turned into nothing but a partisan infighting, something we've all outgrown, right? It did provide the mechanism to memorialize this moment in black history and emphasizes the incredible barriers freed families faced in these critical moments after Reconstruction as Jim Crow was quickly taking hold. I think Senators William Windom and Henry Blair summarized the situation best when they wrote in their minority report that Southern Democrats may regret the violence and crimes by which American citizens are prevented from voting, but they rejoice in the Democratic victories which result therefrom. So long as they shall continue thus to accept the fruits of the crime, the criminals will have but little fear of punishment or restraint and the lawless conduct which is depopulating some sections of their laboring classes will go on. End quote. Although the numbers who relocated during the Exoduster movement pales in comparison to the great migration of the 20th century, black Americans decision to uproot their lives and head toward Kansas demonstrates agency. They were not passive or submissive individuals who were silently accepting the loss of their earned rights. They cared deeply about the future for their children and wanted to make sure they received the best chances at success as possible. Like anyone else, Black Americans were dedicated to the economic uplift for their families and to that aspirational pursuit of happiness outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Before I sign off, I want to say thank you again to Elmont and Darren for their support through Buy Me a Coffee. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I really appreciate it. Your support goes to things like research materials, the book piles are real folks, and things like hosting fees. If you want to learn more about how you can support the show, head on over to the website at www.civicsandcoffee.com. thanks peeps. I'll see you next time. Thanks for sitting down with me as I explored this chapter of American history. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe and share with your friends. I look forward to our next cup of coffee together.