Welcome To Kansas!
Chapter 6
Immigrants From all Around the World
People moved to Kansas from Europe and from all over the United States. African Americans moved to Kansas for safety from the south. They moved there for economic opportunities, but when that fell short, they moved back to the south. The second wave of African Americans were called Exodusters. Benjamin "Pap" Singleton helped the slaves escape the south. The other group of immigrants moved from Europe such as, Germans, Irish, and Swedes. The Germans were the largest European immigrant group to move to Kansas. German immigrants left there towns because of war and their leader. Swedish immigrants left their country for Kansas because extreme weather destroyed the crops and so did famine. All of these immigrants felt a "push/pull" effect when they moved. The "push" was that they did not like the wars and their leader from their country. The "pull" was that Kansas had good economic opportunities and jobs for immigrants.
Pros and Cons of Living in Kansas
The Great Desert was "great" for Indians because the Americans wanted the prairie land than the dry land so they kicked the Indians out. Along with the dry land, came the Great Depression. Kansas experienced many blizzards, droughts, and grasshopper attacks. During that time, settlers had to adapt to the different resources such as, buffalo chips for fuel, barbed wire which was created to fence in animals and farms, sod houses and used windmills for irrigation. In parts of Kansas that was perfect for farming, people used the Homestead Act, or a service giving people 21 and up, 160 acres of land or less for a fare price. Lastly, if someone were poor or lost their farm they could be tenant farms, meaning they farm on other peoples land.
The Abbie Bright Story
Abbie Bright wrote a letter to her brother, Philip, who lived in Wichita. A week later, without knowing if her brother received the letter, she set out for Wichita. Abbie took a stagecoach, train and a pony to get to her brother. At each stop, she encountered people from all around the world coming to Kansas. When she took the stagecoach, she was the only woman on there. After the stagecoach, she hired a young man to take her to the Ninnescah River. After she was dropped off she needed to get across the river so she asked a man for help and he gave her his horse to travel on. At the end of the journey she found out her letter had not been sent out, but soon she reunited with her brother.