African American Settlements

In 1860 there were 625 African Americans living in Kansas. Twenty years later, that number had grown to over 43,000. This population boom was due, in part, to the efforts of promoters who painted Kansas as a land of plenty where African Americans could find economic prosperity.

After the Civil War, formerly enslaved African Americans had to come to terms with being a free people with little or no resources. The cost of land in the South was too expensive for most, making it difficult for them to farm. Politically, social tensions remained long after the war and the Ku Klux Klan’s violent intimidation of African Americans made staying in the South not only difficult, but dangerous.

One former slave, Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, believed African Americans could not prosper if they stayed in the South. He felt strongly that they had to move to northern states to make a fresh start.

With its historic association with John Brown and opportunities for land ownership, Kansas appealed to Singleton. In the 1870s, after investigating the viability of African American settlements in Kansas, he began promoting the state as a sort of “Promised Land.” Over the next few years he helped organize groups of immigrants, relocating them in African American colonies in Kansas. Although they were not wealthy, these people had some resources and were hopeful that they could find opportunities for themselves and their children.

Promotional posters and handbills created by Singleton and others touted “Sunny Kansas” as “one of the finest countries for a poor man in the world,” with “plenty of stone and water, and wood on the streams.” One poster described, “large tracts of land, peaceful homes and firesides, undisturbed by any one.”

Northern town companies and railroads also played a part in these campaigns, and they created their own promotional materials, filled with promises of a land of plenty awaiting those who would make the trip. Railroads offered inducements, and a one-way ticket from Memphis to Topeka could be purchased for as little as $10.

Despite modest resources and the ability to farm, many immigrants discovered life here was challenging. A poor economic climate and harsh weather conditions played a part in keeping the African American colonies in Kansas from reaching their intended potential.

A second wave of nearly 20,000 African Americans came to Kansas in 1879 and 1880. Unlike the first groups of immigrants that had resources and arrived in smaller organized groups, these “Exodusters” had no money and they arrived daily by the hundreds. The communities in which they tried to settle were already struggling economically and were not prepared for such a spike in population. The communities appealed to the state government for assistance, resulting in the creation of the Kansas Freedmen’s Relief Association in 1879. The mission of the KFRA was to collect and distribute resources for struggling African Americans in Kansas.

The 1879 migration caused congestion on the waterways and railroads, leading Congress to call for an investigation of “The Negro Exodus from the Southern States.” Singleton gave testimony, and was asked about the 7,432 people who came to Kansas under his “influence.” He testified that he had spent $600 of his own money on promotional brochures, distributing them throughout the South. He said he put them into the hands those working on trains and boats heading back to the South whom he thought would pass them along. One senator asked if Singleton attributed the migration to the information in his brochures, to which Singleton, ever the promoter, exclaimed, “Yes sir; I am the whole cause of the Kansas immigration!”