greatly aroused the Negroes who had reasons for a
change of abode. This movement was at first composed of individuals;
but later on it became a group movement. In this migratory stream
which flowed southwestward were 35,000 Negroes, who came largely from
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.[11]

Again, in 1879, a large number of Negroes made a rush to Kansas.[12]
This movement was due for the most part to agricultural depression in
parts of the South, but was precipitated greatly by the activities of
a host of petty Negro leaders who had sprung up in all parts of the
South during the Reconstruction period. This exodus began early in
March and continued till May. The estimated number of migrants was
between 5,000 and 10,000; but there were thousands of others who had
planned to migrate, but were deterred from doing so because of the
news of the misfortunes which befell those who actually moved. The
majority of those who left the South were from Louisiana and
Mississippi. In this migration the Negroes left their homes when the
weather was growing warm, but on reaching their destination found that
spring had not yet arrived, the country being still bleak and
desolate. Most of them were poorly clad and without funds.
Consequently, many suffered from want and disease and consequently
became public charges. As soon as it was convenient for them, however,
large numbers returned to their homes where they scattered such
discouraging reports that others who had planned to move declined to
do so. Nevertheless, about a third of them remained in Kansas and of
this portion a fairly large number attained a creditable degree of
prosperity.

The years of the later eighties and the early nineties also witnessed
a few small interstate movements of Negroes.[13] For a long time it
was the custom of employers in the mineral districts of the
Appalachian Mountains to hire only foreign labor to do their work, but
during the time just referred to this labor failed to satisfy the
demand. In order to meet this emergency the employers at once
dispatched their agents to different parts of the South to appeal to
the Negroes for their labor. The efforts of these agents were not
without effect, because many Negroes soon flocked to the mining
districts of Birmingham, Alabama, to those of East Tennessee, and to
those of West Virginia. Also, large numbers went to southern Ohio,
where they were employed in the places of white laborers, who