1. The West
Why do people move?

2. Questions What conditions lured people to migrate to the West?
Where did the western settlers come from?
How did the American frontier shift westward?

3. Push-Pull Factors
When geographers study reasons for major migrations, they look at what they call push-pull factors
Push-Pull Factors-events and conditions that either force (push) people to move elsewhere or strongly attract (pull) them to do so.

4. Push Factors
Push factors are conditions that drive people from their home lands
Push factors include:
War/Conflict/Violence (displacement)
Famine
Scarce land in home country
Political or religious persecution
Poverty

5. Pull Factors
Pull factors are conditions that attract people to a new country or area
Pull factors include:
The promise of political or religious freedom
Hope for a new life
Industry (i.e. the North vs. South)
Jobs
Land
Money

6. Push Factors After the Civil War
The Civil War had displaced thousands of farmers, former slaves, and other workers.
Eastern farmland was too costly.
Failed entrepreneurs sought a second chance in a new locations.
Ethnic and religious repression caused people to seek the freedom of the west.
Including former slaves
Outlaws sought refuge.

7. Pull Factors After the Civil War
The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864
Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862
Land speculation
Homestead Act, 1862
Legally enforceable property rights
Resource speculation

8. Immigrants from Other Countries

9. German Immigrants to the West
German-speaking immigrants arrived seeking farmland.
They brought the Lutheran religion with its emphasis on hard work and education.
Many moved to what is now the Midwest including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, and Nebraska

10. German Heritage 1990’s

11. Scandinavian Immigrants to the West
Lutherans from Scandinavia settled the northern plains from Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas
Many pursuing dairy farming.

12. Other Immigrants to the West
Irish, Italians, European Jews, and Chinese settled in concentrated communities on the West coast
They took jobs in mining and railroad construction
This brought them to the American interior.

13. Chinese Immigrants
Railroad companies began hiring Chinese men as workers
The workers were punctual, willing and well-behaved
Also known as “Celestials” because of their religious beliefs
Experienced harassment from Caucasian workers

14. Chinese Immigrants Chinese teams were organized into groups of 20
Each group had a white foreman
Each worker received $27/mo compared to $35/mo Irish workers made
Irish workers received housing but Chinese workers did not

15. African-American Immigrants to the West
After the Civil War, thousands of African Americans rode or walked westward, often fleeing violence and exploitation
Many African-Americans sought the opportunity to own and farm their own land
They also saw the west as a way to escape the discrimination and violence they experienced in the South

16. African-American Immigrants to the West
Benjamin “Pap” Singleton led groups of southern blacks on a mass “Exodus”
a trek inspired by the biblical account of the Israelites’ flight from Egypt to a prophesied homeland
Hence, the settlers called themselves Exodusters

17. Benjamin “Pap” Singleton
Born a slave in 1809 but escaped to
freedom in Detroit in 1846
After the war he returned to Tennessee
Even though former slaves had freedom they were still terrorized by the KKK
Sharecropping essentially re-enslaved many former slaves by limiting profit
Singleton decided he wanted to help former slaves escape the violence and oppression of the south so………..

18. Benjamin “Pap” Singleton
Singleton decided to lead his people to the promised land (Kansas)
Like a “Black Moses” he encouraged people to make the exodus to Kansas for more opportunities
This mirrored the story of Moses, the man who led his people (the Jews), to the promised land in the Bible
In 1873 nearly 300 Blacks followed him to Cherokee County, Kansas and founded “Singleton’s Colony”

20. Singleton and the Exodusters
Between 1870 and 1881 the organized movement of African-Americans gave way to a larger “Exodus”
Tens of thousands of Southern Blacks fled to Kansas and other Northern states to flee oppression
Many came unprepared but most who remained ultimately improved their quality of life
Many also made important contributions to the state and their community
Singleton, the man known as the “Father of the Negro Exodus” died in 1892

21. Exodusters
Some 50,000 or more Exodusters migrated west.

22. Mormons