Black Settlers of the Great Plains

Transcript

Lori Walsh:

The rush of European American settlers entering Dakota territory after the Civil War included all kinds of people hoping for a fresh start, and not all of those people had roots in Europe. A small but significant number of black Americans were among those drawn to the region by various government backed homestead programs. The lives and times of some of those black settlers, including those who established a colony of sorts in Sully County are the subject of today's Images of the Past. You can find more on our website@sdpb.org, but our guest is Rick Edwards. He's Director Emeritus of the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska. And he's joining us by phone this morning from Denver. Rick, welcome to in the Moment. Thanks for being here.

Richard Edwards:

Thank you. Good to be with you.

Lori Walsh:

This is a history that a lot of people don't know. How common was it for people of African descent to be part of the Homesteading Act in South Dakota or in Dakota territory?

Richard Edwards:

Well, there were relatively few African-Americans who settled in the Dakotas. More in other parts of the great plains in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, and even New Mexico. In total, of course they were a small number compared to the vast numbers of white homesteaders. But they formed a significant group, and their history I think is important for us to remember. Their significance was not necessarily measured just by the numbers.

Lori Walsh:

Yeah. Tell us a little bit about some of the government programs that invited people to come and how different homesteading groups took advantage of that. Like what is the path to land ownership for these settlers?

Richard Edwards:

Yes. Well, the main act was the Homestead Act of 1862, which Abraham Lincoln signed. And of course it was in the middle of the Civil War. What's unusual about the Homestead Act was that it contained no racial exclusions or qualifications. So, African-Americans were eligible to homestead. It did include a provision that people needed to be citizens or intending to become citizens. And that was not clear for black people until 1866, (and the) Civil Rights Act. Then of course, then later the Fourteenth Amendment indicated that they were clearly citizens. So, the territories open in 30 States for homesteading were open to African-Americans. And of course their main hopes were to obtain land that they could work in the South. After all, those were fields that they, with their own sweat had prepared and created and made productive. But land reform in the South was defeated after the Civil War.

Richard Edwards:

And so, some African-Americans turned their eyes West in a migration before the great migration to the Northern cities. And so they came to South Dakota. The South Dakota case is very interesting. Norvell Blair was a man born in slavery in Tennessee in the 1840s. After he was free, he went to Illinois first and was successful as an entrepreneur there. But in 1882, he sent his two sons to Sully County to discover whether that would be a good place for them to settle. The sons returned with a favorable report. And that was really the beginning of black settlement in Sully County.

Lori Walsh:

Tell me a little bit about the legacy of this today. Or is there historical interpretation? Do we have communities of people who trace their roots back to this migration, and this really nationwide distribution of wealth and land? What can you tell me about that?

Richard Edwards:

Yes. It certainly has left a legacy, not so much in terms of communities of black farmers, but more in the lives of the descendants of black homesteaders of whom we estimate there are about 250,000 living today. That's from black homes across all of the Great Plains States. The black homesteaders had a great belief in education. And one of the first things they did was to create schools. And they participated actively in those. But as many farm families, black and white, have found that when you have children who are educated to be nurses or pharmacists or teachers, it's often hard to keep them on the farm. They want to use their new education and skills someplace, and that's usually in a city.

Richard Edwards:

And so, these black communities, just like many, many white homesteader communities found that their young people left. Now, for the black homesteading generation, that was okay. Their legacy, and they saw this, was not going to be in a multi-generational farm. In some cases it was, and there are some for which that was true in Sully County. But mostly, it was in creating a space where the homesteading generation could earn their livelihood, then educate their children. And their most generous gift to their children and grandchildren was education, which would allow them to succeed in other places and in other occupations.

Lori Walsh:

Many enslaved people in North America were promised things after the Civil War. Promised to stay where they were at and they would be able to get some of that land. Those promises were broken. And in our remaining minute here, I'm just wondering if, were these people... Did they find the kind of freedom that we would hope they were able to find as they moved on from enslavement and into a brighter tomorrow, not only for them, but for the generation after them?

Richard Edwards:

Yes, I think they did. Of course, American society was marked by racism and segregation right up to the present. And so, they had to survive in that kind of society. But there was great deal of joy and feeling of accomplishment and success in these communities. And I think they found that, while the world was not perfect, and certainly, they suffered challenges and hardships. These were pretty successful people. And just like their white homesteader neighbors, they accomplished a lot in their lives, which they were very proud.

Lori Walsh:

Rick Edwards is the Director Emeritus of the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska. He joined us for today's images of the past, and you can find more on our website@sdpb.org. Rick, thank you so much for your time today. We really, really appreciate it.

Richard Edwards:

You're very welcome. Thank you.

Learn more:

The Center for Great Plains Studies, Lincoln, Nebraska

Black Settlers of Sully County South Dakota (National Park Service Web site.)

"Black People in South Dakota History" (.pdf), South Dakota State Historical Society