Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809-1892) was a significant figure in nineteenth century African American history. Although illiterate, Singleton became the founder of two black separatist colonies in Kansas and went on to become a national spokesman for the Exodusters of 1879-1880. Main article: African American African American history is the history of an ethnic group in the United States also known as black Americans. ... Black separatism is a separatist political movement that seeks a separate homeland for black people, particularly African-Americans. ... Official language(s) English Capital Topeka Largest city Wichita Area  Ranked 15th  - Total 82,277 sq. ...

Early life

Although it is known that Benjamin Singleton was born in 1809 as a slave in Davidson County near Nashville, Tennessee, details of his early life remain scant. He was the son of a black mother and a white father and was trained as a carpenter. Reportedly Singleton made several attempts to runaway but remained in bondage until 1846 when he successfully escaped to freedom. Singleton made his way north along the Underground Railroad to Windsor, Canada, and remained there a year before relocating to Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit he lived as a scavenger and used what resources he could to help other escaped slaves find their way to Canada. Singleton remained in Detroit until the end of the Civil War. Wiktionary has related dictionary definitions, such as: slave Slave may refer to: Slavery, where people are owned by others, and live to serve their owners without pay Slave (BDSM), a form of sexual and consenual submission Slave clock, in technology, a clock or timer that synchrnonizes to a master clock... Davidson County is a county located in the state of Tennessee. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Music City Location Location in Davidson County and the state of Tennessee Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Tennessee Davidson County Founded: Incorporated: 1780 1806 Mayor Bill Purcell (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 526. ... Map of some Underground Railroad routes This page is about the slave escape route. ... Motto: The river and the land sustain us. ... Nickname: Motor City; Motown, D-Town, The D, The Renaissance City, Detroit Rock City, The Rock City, The 313 Motto: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (Latin for, We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes) Location in Wayne County, Michigan Coordinates: Country State County United States Michigan Wayne... The Civil War is by far the most common term for this conflict; see Naming the American Civil War. ...

Separatism

When the Civil War ended in 1865, Singleton returned to his native Tennessee. He took up residence in Nashville and worked as a carpenter and coffin maker. His experiences in making coffins for victims of lynching in the period of Reconstruction led him to conclude that blacks would have no chance for equality in the South. Disgusted by the posturing of political leaders who failed to deliver on their promises of freedom and equality for former slaves, Singleton in 1869 joined forces with Columbus M. Johnson and began looking for ways to establish black economic independence. Official language(s) English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Area  Ranked 36th  - Total 42,169 sq mi (109,247 km²)  - Width 120 miles (195 km)  - Length 440 miles (710 km)  - % water 2. ... Lynching is a term loosely applied to various forms of violence, usually murder, conceived by its perpetrators as extra-legal punishment of offenders by a summary procedure, ignoring, or even contrary to, the strict forms of law, notably execution, or used as a terrorist method of enforcing social domination. ... // Reconstruction was the period in United States history, 1865–1998 that resolved the issues of the American Civil War when both the Confederacy and its system of slavery were destroyed. ...

In 1874, Singleton and Johnson founded the Edgefield Real Estate Association with the goal of helping African Americans obtain land in the Nashville area. Unfortunately, white landowners were unwilling to bargain with Singleton and would not sell land to blacks at anything other than outrageous prices. Convinced that Africans Americans must separate from the South if they were ever to gain true independence, Singleton in 1875 began to explore the idea of planting black colonies in the American West. His real estate organization was renamed the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association, and in 1876 Singleton and Johnson made a personal trip to Kansas to scout out land in Cherokee County in the southeastern corner of the state. Heartened by what he saw, Singleton returned to Nashville with the news and began recruiting settlers for a proposed colony. An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... The Western United States, also referred to as the American West or simply The West, traditionally refers to the region constituting the westernmost states of the United States (see geographical terminology section for further discussion of these terms). ... Cherokee County (standard abbreviation: CK) is a county located in the state of Kansas. ...

The Singleton Colonies

In the summer of 1877, Singleton led approximately seventy-three African American settlers to Cherokee County near the town of Baxter Springs. Once the settlers arrived, they began negotiating with the Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad for land to build their proposed Singleton Colony. Unfortunately, rich lead deposits had been discovered in the area during the previous year, which led to a mining boom and caused land prices to rise above the ability of Singleton's colonists to pay. Without the ability to buy land, the colony idea in Cherokee County fell apart. Singleton began looking elsewhere. Baxter Springs is a city located in Cherokee County, Kansas. ... General Name, Symbol, Number lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 6, p Appearance bluish white Atomic mass 207. ...

Aware that land prices had defeated his first attempt to plant an independent African American colony, Singleton began looking for government land that his settlers could take up through the Homestead Act. He found some available land on what had been the old Kaw Indian Reservation around the town of Dunlap, Kansas, on the borders of Morris County and Lyon County. Dunlap was situated along the tracks of the Katy Railroad. The land was marginal, but in the spring of 1878 Singleton's settlers came to the area and founded the second Singleton Colony. Most settlers lived in dugouts during their first year on the Great Plains, but they stuck it out and made the colony a success. The Homestead Act of 1862 is a piece of U.S. legislation which gave one quarter of a section of a township (160 acres, or about 65 hectares) of undeveloped land in the American West to any family head or person that was at least 21 years of age, provided... The Kaw (or Kanza ) are an American Indian people of the central Midwestern United States. ... Reservation is something reserved. ... Dunlap is a city located in Morris County, Kansas. ... Morris County (standard abbreviation: MR) is a county located in the state of Kansas. ... Lyon County (standard abbreviation: LY) is a county located in the state of Kansas. ... The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (known as the MKT, or Katy) began as the Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch (unrelated to the Union Pacific Railroad) in 1865. ... The Great Plains is the broad expanse of prairie which lies east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States of America and Canada, covering all or parts of the U.S. states of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota and the...

The Exodusters, 1879-1880

In 1879, a mass movement of poor African Americans seeking to escape poverty and racial oppression in the South came to Kansas seeking freedom. These were the Exodusters. They had no direct connection with Singleton's organized colonization movement, but Singleton and his followers were sympathetic to their plight. Many white Kansans objected to the arrival of so many desperately poor blacks into their state, but Singleton stepped forward as a defender of the Exodusters and proclaimed that it was their right to try and find a better life for themselves in the American West. Singleton's proclamations became loud enough that in 1880 he was subpoenaed to appear before the United States Senate in Washington, D.C., to testify on the causes of the Great Exodus of African Americans to Kansas. Singleton rebuffed the efforts of Southern Senators to discredit the Exodus Movement and boasted of his own success in setting up independent black colonies. Singleton returned to Kansas as a nationally recognized spokesman for the Exodusters. Unfortunately, the arrival of so many poor blacks put more of a financial burden on the Singleton Colony than the original settlers could bear. By 1880, the Presbyterian Church had taken charitable control of the settlement and made plans to build a Freedmen's Academy in the town, but Singleton had no more dealings with his colony at Dunlap. A subpoena is a writ commanding a person to appear under penalty (from Latin). ... Seal of the Senate The Senate of the United States of America is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., with regard to the surrounding states of Maryland and Virginia. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ...

Final Years

In 1881, Benjamin Singleton was seventy-two-years-old, and most people referred to him affectionately as "old Pap." Still, he was a formidable figure and used his reputation to try and unite all African Americans on a national level into an organization called the Colored United Links (CUL). The goal of the CUL was to combine the financial resources of all black people in America and use them to build black-owned businesses, factories, and trade schools. The CUL formed in Topeka, Kansas, in 1881 and held several conventions. The organization was locally successful enough that Republican Party officials in Kansas became concerned about the potential political strength of the CUL. Presidential candidate James B. Weaver of the Greenback Party met with CUL leaders, which led to talk of a fusion between the two groups. Unfortunately, CUL membership faltered after 1881, and the organization soon fell apart. Map Political Statistics Founded December 5, 1854 Incorporated February 14, 1857 County Shawnee County Mayor Bill Bunten Geographic Statistics Area  - Total  - Land  - Water 147. ... The Republican Party (often referred to as the GOP, for Grand Old Party) is one of the two major political parties in the United States two-party system, along with the Democratic Party. ... James Baird Weaver James Baird Weaver (June 12, 1833 – February 6, 1912) was a United States politician and member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Iowa as a member of the Greenback Party. ... The Greenback Party (Greenback-Labor Party) was an American political party that was active between 1874 and 1884. ...

After the failure of the CUL, Singleton became convinced that African Americans would never be allowed to succeed in the United States. He persevered, and in 1883 Singleton briefly joined with St. Louis, Missouri, businessman Joseph Ware and African American minister John Williams in proposing that African Americans migrate to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The Cyprus idea was stillborn, and in 1885 Singleton moved to Kansas City where he made the final move to Pan-Africanism. In 1885 Singleton founded the United Transatlantic Society (UTS) with the goal of separating all blacks from the United States and relocating them in Africa. It was an idea that coincided and had some tenuous links with Bishop Henry McNeil Turner's own proposed African migration movement. Nickname: Gateway City, Gateway to the West, or Mound City Location in the state of Missouri Coordinates: Country State County United States Missouri Independent City Mayor Francis G. Slay (D) Area    - City 66. ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a metropolitan area situated at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers and straddling the state border between Missouri and Kansas. ... Pan-Africanism is a term which can have two separate, but related meanings. ...

The UTS lasted till 1887 but never managed to send anyone to Africa. In poor health, Singleton retired from his life of activism. He raised his voice one final time in 1889 to call for a portion of the newly opening Oklahoma Territory to be reserved as an all-black state. Benjamin Singleton died in 1892. The location of his grave is unknown. Oklahoma Territory was an organized territory of the United States from May 2, 1890 until November 16, 1907, when Oklahoma became the 46th state. ...

Benjamin Singleton was survived by several children. His son, Joshua, eventually settled in Allensworth, California, an African American agricultural settlement in Tulare County. Benjamin Singleton's great granddaughter (Joshua's granddaughter through his daughter Virginia Louise) was Midge Williams (1915-1952). Midge Williams was famous in the 1930s and 1940s as a Swing Jazz Music vocalist. She can be heard on vintage records from the era as Midge Williams and Her Jazz Jesters. Tulare County is a county located in U.S. state of Californias Central Valley, south of Fresno. ...

Misconceptions

Many histories of Benjamin Singleton incorrectly state that the first Singleton Colony in Cherokee County was founded as early as 1873; that it was a success; and that it inspired the founding of the famous Nicodemus, Kansas, colony. In fact, some histories inexplicably credit Singleton as the founder of Nicodemus. Such misconceptions are based upon inadequate research. Singleton did not establish his Real Estate Assocaiation prior to 1874 and did not make his first scouting trip to Kansas until 1876; the Singleton Colony in Cherokee County failed almost immediately; and Nicodemus was founded independently by black settlers from Kentucky in 1877, a full year before Singleton founded his successful colony at Dunlap.^[1] Nicodemus National Historic Site preserves, protects and interprets the only remaining western town established by African Americans during the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War. ... Official language(s) English Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Area  Ranked 37th  - Total 40,444 sq mi (104,749 km²)  - Width 140 miles (225 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Entz, "Image and Reality on the Kansas Prairie," Kansas History 19 (summer 1996): 138-139.

Bibliography

• Athearn, Robert G. In Search of Canaan: Black Migration to Kansas, 1879-80. Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1978.

• Entz, Gary R. "Benjamin 'Pap' Singleton: Father of the Kansas Exodus." in Portraits of African American Life Since 1865, ed. by Nina Mjagkij. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2003.

• Entz, Gary R. "Image and Reality on the Kansas Prairie: 'Pap' Singleton's Cherokee County Colony." Kansas History 19 (summer 1996): 124-139.

• Fleming, Walter P. "'Pap' Singleton: The Moses of the Colored Exodus," American Journal of Sociology. 15 (July 1909): 61-82.

• Garvin, Roy. "Benjamin, or 'Pap,' Singleton and his Followers." Journal of Negro History. 33 (January 1948): 7-23.

• Hickey, Joseph V. "'Pap' Singleton's Dunlap Colony: Relief Agencies and the Failure of a Black Settlement in Eastern Kansas." Great Plains Quarterly 11 (winter 1991): 23-36.

• Painter, Nell Irvin. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986.

External links

• PBS The West, Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

• Kansas State Historical Society, Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

• Tennessee State Library, Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

• AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT OAKLAND, Midge Williams