Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

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"Benjamin Singleton" redirects here. For the Australian settler and explorer, see Benjamin Singleton (Australian settler).
Benjamin "Pap" Singleton
Born1809
Davidson County, Tennessee, US
DiedFebruary 17, 1900 (aged 90–91)
Kansas City, Missouri, US
Resting placeUnion Cemetery
Kansas City, Missouri
MovementAbolitionist

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809 – February 17, 1900) was an American activist and businessman best known for his role in establishing

Detroit, Michigan. He became a noted abolitionist
, community leader, and spokesman for African-American civil rights.

Singleton returned to Tennessee during the

Reconstruction, Singleton organized the movement of thousands of black colonists, known as Exodusters, to found settlements in the free state of Kansas. A prominent voice for early black nationalism, he became involved in promoting and coordinating black-owned businesses in Kansas and developed an interest in the Back-to-Africa movement
.

Early life and education

Although it is known that Benjamin Singleton was born in 1809 into slavery in Davidson County near Nashville, Tennessee, details of his early life remain scant. He was the son of a white father and an enslaved black mother. As a youth, he was trained as a carpenter but regretted never learning to read and write. Reportedly Singleton made several attempts to run away but was unsuccessful.

In 1846, Singleton managed to escape to freedom. He made his way north along the Underground Railroad to Windsor, Ontario, 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 freedom in Canada. Singleton lived in Detroit until after the Civil War was underway. During this time, he worked as a carpenter.

Separatism

After the Union Army occupied

freedmen were still subject to white racial violence and political problems, Singleton concluded that blacks would have no chance for equality in the South. Disgusted by political leaders who failed to deliver on promises of equality for freedmen, in 1869 Singleton joined forces with Columbus M. Johnson, a black minister in Sumner County
, and began looking for ways to establish black economic independence.

In 1874, Singleton and Johnson founded the Edgefield Real Estate Association, with the goal of helping African Americans acquire land in the Nashville area. White landowners were unwilling to bargain with them and wanted too high prices for their land. Convinced that freedmen must leave

American West. His real estate organization was renamed the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association. In 1876, Singleton and Johnson traveled to Kansas to scout land in Cherokee County
in the southeastern corner of the state. Heartened by what he saw, Singleton returned to Nashville and began recruiting settlers for a proposed colony.

Singleton colonies

In the summer of 1877, Singleton led approximately seventy-three black settlers to Cherokee County near the town of

Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad for land to build their proposed Singleton Colony. Their timing was late, as rich lead
deposits had been discovered in the area the previous year, which led to a mining boom and caused land prices to rise too high for their funds. Without the ability to buy land, they could not create a colony in Cherokee County. Singleton began looking elsewhere.

He searched for government land which his settlers could acquire through the 1862

Katy Railroad, which extended into Kansas from Missouri. The land was marginal, but in the spring of 1878, Singleton's settlers left middle Tennessee for Kansas via steamboats on the Cumberland River. The following year they officially established the Dunlap Colony.[2] More than 2400 settlers emigrated from the Nashville and Sumner County areas.[1] Most settlers lived in dugouts during their first year on the Great Plains
. They stuck it out and made the colony a success.

Exodusters, 1879–80

Main article: Exodusters

By 1879 of the "

Great Exodus", 50,000 freedmen known as Exodusters had migrated from the South to escape poverty and racial violence following whites' regaining political control across the former Confederacy. They migrated to Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois seeking land, better working conditions, and the chance to live in peace. Part of Topeka, Kansas
, was known as "Tennessee Town" because of many migrants from that state. Most had no direct connection with Singleton's organized colony movement, but Singleton and his followers were sympathetic to their plight. Many white Kansans began to object to the arrival of so many desperately poor blacks into their state. Singleton stepped forward to defend the Exodusters' right to try to make better lives in the American West.

In 1880, Singleton was requested to appear before the

Presbyterian Church
had taken charitable control of the settlement; it planned to build a Freedmen's Academy in the town. Singleton had no more dealings with his colony at Dunlap.

Final years

During 1881, Singleton was 72 years old, and most people referred to him affectionately as "old Pap". He was still a formidable figure and used his reputation to bring together blacks into an organization called the Colored United Links (CUL). The goal of the CUL, which he created in Topeka, was to combine the financial resources of all black people to build black-owned businesses, factories, and trade schools. The group held several conventions and was successful enough locally that Republican Party officials in Kansas became interested in its potential political strength. Presidential candidate James B. Weaver of the Greenback Party met with CUL leaders, to discuss fusion between the two groups. After 1881, CUL membership faltered, however, and the organization soon fell apart.

After the failure of the CUL, Singleton became convinced that blacks would never be allowed to succeed in the United States. In 1883, he briefly joined with Joseph Ware a

Mediterranean island of Cyprus
. That idea was not developed.

In 1885, Singleton moved to

Henry McNeil Turner
also had his own proposed African migration movement.

The UTS lasted until 1887 but never sent 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 on February 17, 1900, in Kansas City, Missouri.[3][4][5] He was buried in Union Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri on February 26, 1900.[6][7]

Family

Benjamin Singleton married and was the father of several children. Two of his children – Emily, born about 1840 in Tennessee, and Sarah, born about 1858 in Michigan – wrote letters to their father from East Nashville, Tennessee, during the mid-1880s.[8] An undated note regarding Singleton's testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee in 1880 quoted Singleton as saying: "I have been a slave fled to Canada when my children were small and nineteen years after when I returned they were grown."[9]

His son, Joshua W. Singleton, eventually settled in

Tulare County. Joshua's grandchildren, through his married daughter Virginia Louise Williams and her husband John, were John Williams Jr., Midge Williams
(1915-1952), Charles and Robert Williams.

As young adults, they started singing together in the Bay Area as the Williams Quartette. In 1928 they started touring as the Williams Four. In 1933, they had a successful tour in

Shanghai, China, which was a destination for increasing numbers of European refugees, and Japan. Midge Williams also sang as a swing jazz soloist in the late 1930s and 1940s. She recorded with a group as Midge Williams and Her Jazz Jesters.[10]

Legacy and honors

In 2002, American scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed "Pap" Singleton as among the 100 Greatest African Americans.[11]

History of colonies

Singleton did not establish his Real Estate Association prior to 1874 and did not make his first scouting trip to Kansas until 1876; the Singleton Colony in Cherokee County failed almost immediately after being settled. Nicodemus, Kansas was founded independently in 1877 by black settlers from Kentucky, one year before Singleton founded his successful colony at Dunlap.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Bobby L. Lovett, Benjamin "Pap" Singleton, Tennessee State University Library.
  2. ^ a b c Entz, "Image and Reality on the Kansas Prairie", Kansas History 19 (Summer 1996): 138–139.
  3. ^ Kansas City Star, February 18, 1900, p. 2.
  4. ^ "He Was Once A Slave, KansasMemory blog,
  5. ^ Benj. Singleton Death Record, Missouri Birth & Death Records Database
  6. ^ Union Cemetery Historical Society, Kansas City, MO, Union Cemetery Record book, p. 25.
  7. ^ Hendricks, Mike. “Mystery of Ol’ Pap leads to a KC Grave,” Kansas City Star, January 25, 2013.
  8. ^ Letters, Material Relating to Benjamin Singleton, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, KS. Item 225712, pp. 34 & 37.
  9. ^ Letters, Material Relating to Benjamin Singleton, Kansas Memory, KSHS, WoW Item 225712, p. 54, nd.
  10. ^ "Midge Williams" Archived November 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA. Retrieved August 16, 2008.
  11. ISBN 1-57392-963-8
    .

Sources

External links

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