By Chapter Ten, "Solving the Race Problem," Nell Painter has developed the background of the mass migration as a necessary reaction to worsening conditions in the South proper. To motivate community cohesion among Blacks, new political organizations and parties like the United Colored Links were formed. At the same time, white Southerners feared an impending exodus because they continued to depend on sharecroppers as a form of cheap, nearly slave labor. The Links offered southern Blacks the philosophical and social means by which to create a community identity distinct from the oppressors. Part Three of Exodusters consists of nine chapters and describes the heart of the matter of migration. "Liberia Fever," Chapter 11, Painter discusses the Liberia proposition in the greater context of the exodus. The sense that Blacks needed to start new and from a clean slate meant that many did look towards Africa as a symbol of genuine liberation. Unable to see a bright future in the South, many did view Liberia as a "perfected America, free from racial hatred," (p. 138). Painter admits that the Liberia project failed after the fever died down. Chapter 12 describes "Migration to Kansas Preceding the Exodus," describing early waves of people movement towards the rural plains. In...

Politics in the south were become fiercely polarizing. Moreover, Painter describes the systematic means of ensuring black oppression by preventing access to the polls.
Chapter 14 is about the "Windom Resolution and the Louisiana Constitutional Convention." The Windom Resolution facilitated the Black exodus from the South to Kansas. Chapter 15 describes Kansas Fever and the Exodus of 1879. A wave of some six thousand Blacks fled Tennessee, Louisiana, and other states in the Deep South in search of greater freedom and economic opportunity. The sheer numbers of migrants were astounding, and would forever alter the socio-political and geographic landscape of the United States.

Reactions to the exodus are described in Chapter 16, in which Painter relies well on primary sources. Likewise, the author describes "Meetings and Conventions in the Wake of the Exodus" by using primary sources in Chapter 17 and refugee relief in Chapter 18. The final chapter of Exodusters describes the national reaction to the exodus, including the tired tirades of white supremacists.

Work Cited

Painter, Nell Irvin. Exodusters.…