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Community Life (Remove)
Date -- 1880s (Remove)
Date (Remove)
Community Life -- Clubs and organizations -- Charitable -- Relief (Remove)
Community Life -- Clubs and organizations -- Charitable (Remove)
Page 1 of 2, showing 10 records out of 19 total, starting on record 1, ending on 10

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Title | Creator | Date Made Visible | None

An appeal for help in behalf of the colored refugees in Kansas

Rust, Horatio Nelson, 1828-1906

This flyer, distributed by the Southern Refugee Relief Association of Chicago, Illinois, describes the dire situation of the African-American refugees relocated in Kansas. The secretary of this association, Horatio N. Rust, had taken this opportunity to pass along information relayed to him by Elizabeth Comstock, an aid worker in Topeka. Comstock was thankful for the donations of food and other goods, but asked for more assistance in feeding, clothing, and sheltering these refugees. The flyer also includes short excerpts of letters by agents of the refugee association who had direct knowledge of the emigrants? situation.

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Governor John P. St. John to Horatio N. Rust

St. John, John Pierce, 1833-1916

This informative twelve-page letter, written by John P. St. John, Governor of Kansas, details how the Freedman?s Relief Association has been assisting the black refugees fleeing from the South. St. John was well acquainted with the workings of this association, being a board member himself, and therefore he gave specific details about how many emigrants have found employment. He also discusses the barracks in Topeka that housed around 200 emigrants in need of shelter. Many of these Exodusters were suffering during the cold winter, and St. John mentioned that the association needed lumber to build additional barracks and houses for some of the emigrants. Toward the end of the letter, St. John implored Rust to discover if Illinois (Rust's home state) would be able to accept any of these refugees.

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J. C. Black to Governor John P. St. John

Black, J. C.

This brief letter was written by J. C. Black, a former slave from Paris, Tennessee. According to Black, his white neighbors were saying that black refugees in Kansas were starving and out of work. Black wanted to know if this was true before he moved to Kansas. He asked for a speedy response. In addition to his service as Governor, St. John also served on the Board of Directors of the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association.

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Samuel Baker to John P. St. John

Baker, Samuel

Samuel Baker of Columbia, South Carolina, wrote this letter to Kansas governor St. John requesting information about housing for freed blacks. Apparently, there were around 10,000 blacks in South Carolina wanting to escape racial oppression in the South, and Baker desired more information and advice about relocating these people to Kansas. In addition to his service as governor, St. John also served on the Board of Directors of the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association.

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W. H. Caltin to John P. St. John

This letter from W. J. Caltin included a check for sixty dollars, collected by the citizens of Meriden, Connecticut. This money was to be used to aid black refugees, otherwise known as Exodusters, from the South. Caltin also notified Governor St. John that Meriden had forwarded six or seven barrels of clothing to Elizabeth Comstock, an agent for the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association. In addition to his role as Kansas governor, St. John served on the Board of Directors of the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association.

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Mrs. P. Gillespie to John P. St. John

Gillespie, Mrs. P.

In this brief letter, Mrs. P. Gillespie of Nevada, Iowa, enclosed five dollars as a contribution to the Exoduster relief effort in Kansas. In addition to his role as governor of Kansas, St. John also served on the Board of Directors of the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association.

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Richard West to John P. St. John

Richard West, a resident of Barton Station, Alabama, wrote this letter to Kansas governor St. John requesting information about available land in Kansas. West was a farmer who described in some detail many of the concerns facing emigrants, including transportation and other expenses. In addition to his role as governor of Kansas, St. John also served on the Board of Directors of the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association.

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J. Lincoln to John P. St. John

Lincoln, J.

J. Lincoln, a resident of Belvidere, Illinois, wrote this letter to obtain more information about the condition of black refugees in Kansas. Apparently Lincoln had planned on sending clothing to Elizabeth Comstock (an agent of the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association), but one of his neighbors said such a donation was unnecessary because there were no suffering emigrants in Kansas. Lincoln wanted to know the truth about this matter. Kansas governor St. John was on the board of the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association.

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Wilmer Walton to John P. St. John

Walton, Wilmer

This letter, by the correspondent for the Labette County Freedmen?s Relief Association in Parsons, Kansas, described the condition of black refugees in the area. Walton thanked Governor John P. St. John for his financial support, and explained how Walton had been visiting the suffering refugees and distributing aid as best he could. He also encouraged the governor to continue supporting relief efforts. St. John, in addition to his official duties as governor, was a board member of the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association.

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Elizabeth Comstock to John P. St. John

Comstock, Elizabeth

In this letter Elizabeth Comstock, a former agent of the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association, relates her experiences during her visit to the East coast in 1881. Comstock and some of her New York colleagues had the opportunity to speak with President James Garfield, giving him four main points to consider regarding the Exodus movement. According to her letter, Garfield was devoted to aiding black refugees. She also wrote of other matters, including how some blacks in southern Kansas were displeased about the dissolution of the Kansas Freedmen?s Relief Association; in contrast, Comstock believed the demise of this association had some positive repercussions.

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