"Now, old Uncle Joe, what did you come for?"
"Oh, law! Missus, I follers my two boys an' the ole woman an' then 'pears like I wants a taste of votin' afore I dies, an' the ole man done wants no swamps to wade in afore he votes, 'kase he must be Republican, ye see."
"Well, old Aunty, give us the sympathetic side of the story; or, tell us what you think of leaving your old home."
"I done have no home nohow, if they shoots my ole man an' the boys, an' gives me no money for de washin."
A bright woman of twenty-five years is asked her condition, when she answers; "I had n't much real trouble yet, like some of my neighbors who lost every thing. We had a lot an' a little house, an' some stock on the place. We sold all out 'kase we did n't dare to stay when votin' time came again. Some neighbors better off than we had been all broken up by a pack of "night-riders"—all in white,—who scared everybody to death, run the men off to the swamps before elections, run the stock off, an' set fire to their places. A poor woman might as well be killed and done with it."
In the early Spring of 1879, the now famous Exodus of the Negroes from the South set in toward the Northern States.
"Many already have fled to the forest and lurk on its outskirts, Waiting with anxious hearts the dubious fate of the morrow. Arms have been taken from us, and warlike weapons of all kinds; Nothing is left but the blacksmith's sledge and the scythe of the mower."
The story of the emigration of a people has been often repeated since the world began. The Israelites of old, with their wanderings of forty years, furnish the theme of an inspired poem as old as history itself. The dreadful tale of the Kalmuck Tartars, in 1770, fleeing from their enemies, the Russians, over the desolate steppes of Asia in mid-winter; starting out six hundred thousand strong, men, women, and children, with their flocks and herds, and reaching the confines of China with only two hundred thousand left, formed an era in oriental annals, and made a combination from which new races of men have sprung. But still more appropriate to this occasion is the history of the Huguenots of France, driven by religious persecution to England and Ireland, where, under their influence, industries sprang up as the flowers of the field, and what was England's gain was irreparable loss to France.[135] The expulsion of the Acadians, a harmless and inoffensive people, from Nova Scotia, is another instance of the revenge that natural laws inflict upon tyranny and injustice. Next to the persecuted Pilgrims crossing a dreary ocean in mid-winter to the sterile coasts of a land of savages for freedom's sake, history hardly furnishes a more touching picture than that of forty thousand homeless, friendless, starving Negroes going to a land already consecrated with the blood of the martyrs to the cause of free Soil and unrestricted liberty. It was grandly strange that these poor people, persecuted, beaten with many stripes, hungry, friendless, and without clothing or shelter, should instinctively seek a home in Kansas where John Brown had fought the first battle for liberty and the restriction of slavery! Some journeyed all the way from Texas to Kansas in teams, with great horned oxen, and little steers in front no larger than calves, bowing eagerly to the weary load. Worn and weary with a nine weeks' journey, the travellers strained their eyes toward the land of hope, blindly yet beautifully "trustin' de good Lord." Often they buried their dead as soon as they arrived, many dying on the hard floor of the hastily-built wooden barracks before beds could be provided, but praying all night long and saying touchingly: "Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Come with dyin' grace in one hand and savin' love in the other."[136]
A relief association was organized at once. A dear, good, old Quaker lady, in her sixty-fourth year, a quarter of a century of which had been spent in relieving suffering humanity, came forward and offered her services free of charge. The association was organized as The Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association. Mrs. Comstock was just the person to manage the matter of raising funds and securing clothing. In Gov. J. P. St. John, Mrs. Comstock and the association found a warm-hearted Christian friend.
Notwithstanding the plain, world-known causes, the Hon. D. W. Voorhees, United States Senator from Indiana, introduced a resolution providing for the investigation of "the causes of the migration of the Colored people from the Southern to the Northern States." It cost the Government thousands of dollars, but developed nothing save what the country had known for years, that the political cruelties and systematic robbery practised upon the Colored people in the South had forced them into a free country.
In one year those who had taken up a residence in Kansas had become self-sustaining. They took hold of the work with enthusiasm; they proved themselves industrious and frugal.
The Relief Association at first supplied them with stoves, teams, and seed. In round numbers, in a little more than a year, $40,000 was used, and 500,000 pounds of clothing, bedding, etc. England contributed 50,000 pounds of goods and $8,000 in money; the chief givers being Mrs. Comstock's friends who knew her in her good work abroad. Much of the remainder had come in small sums, and from the Christian women of America. One third was furnished by the Society of Friends. Ohio gave more than any other State. The State and municipal funds of Kansas were not drawn upon at all, though much had come from private sources.
During the first year in Kansas, the freedmen entered upon 20,000 acres of land, and plowed and fitted for grain-growing 3,000 acres. They built 300 cabins and dugouts, and accumulated $30,000. In 1878 Henry Carter, of Tennessee, set out from Topeka on foot for Dunlap, sixty-five miles away; he carrying his tools, and his wife their bedclothes. In 1880 he had forty acres of land cleared and the first payment made, having earned his money on sheep ranches and elsewhere by daily labor. He has built a good stone cottage sixteen feet by ten, owns two cows, a horse, etc. In Topeka, where there were about 3,000 refugees, nearly all paupers when they came, all have found means in some way to make a living. These people have shown themselves worthy of aid. Mrs. Comstock has heard of only five or six cases of intoxication in nine months, and of no arrests for stealing. They do not want to settle where there is no church, and are all eager to have a Bible and to learn. Schools have been opened for the adults—the public schools of Kansas wisely making no distinction on account of color,—and also industrial schools, especially for women, who are quite ignorant of the ordinary duties of home life.