| | 1 | Author: | Runnion, James B. | Add | | | Title: | The Negro Exodus  | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | A RECENT sojourn in the South for a few weeks, chiefly in Louisiana
and Mississippi, gave the writer an opportunity to inquire into
what has been so aptly called "the negro exodus." The emigration
of blacks to Kansas began early in the spring of this year. For a
time there was a stampede from two or three of the river parishes
in Louisiana and as many counties opposite in Mississippi.
Several thousand negroes (certainly not fewer than five thousand,
and variously estimated as high as ten thousand) had left their
cabins before the rush could be stayed or the excitement lulled.
Early in May most of the negroes who had quit work for the purpose
of emigrating, but had not succeeded in getting off, were persuaded
to return to the plantations, and from that time on there have been
only straggling families and groups that have watched for and
seized the first opportunity for transportation to the North.
There is no doubt, however, that there is still a consuming desire
among the negroes of the cotton districts in these two States to
seek new homes, and there are the best reasons for believing that
the exodus will take a new start next spring, after the gathering
and conversion of the growing crop. Hundreds of negroes who
returned from the river-banks for lack of transportation, and
thousands of others infected with the ruling discontent, are
working harder in the fields this summer, and practicing more
economy and self-denial than ever before, in order to have the
means next winter and spring to pay their way to the "promised
land." | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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