Benjamin "Pap" Singleton
Benjamin "Pap" Singleton was born in 1809 in Nashville Tennessee, Singleton was born a former Davidson slave. Paps real name is Benjamin Singleton but most people call him Pap. Pap was raised and trained to be a cabinet maker. After Singleton  was sold and sent to New Orleans he escaped back to Nashville then to Detroit then returned to Nashville which was under the Union Army. Pap lived in a large Union camp for fugitive slaves along the riverbank in Edgeville.. While at Edgeville Singleton made cabinets and coffins for a living. Pap decided to try and make an escape for Canada three times but failed all three. So after that he mad his way to the Under Ground Rail Road and from there to  Ontaria.. After the Under Ground Rail Road  Pap returned to Detroit where he worked until 1865 as a boarding-house for fugitive slaves.

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

In September of 1869, black Nashvillians put on a large meeting to talk about migrating from the south. Since the meeting failed to gain vote for the Exodus, Pap and a black preacher from Summer County named Columbus M. Johnson organized a  Homestead Assoiation. In 1872 the Assotiation sent a committe to look at Kansas to consider settlement. One year later Johnson, Singleton and 300 boarded steamboats set off on the cumberland river to parts of Kansas such as Cherokee County, Wyandotte and Topeka. For years afterwards the north part of Topeka was know as "Tennessee Town". Singletons goal was to get blacks to start there lives and make factories in Topeka but the Capital City wasnt big enough.
In 1875 Singleton, William A. Sizemore and Benjamin Petway called for a state convention to discuss black migration into the west. In 1877 the driving force was of federal troops from the South. This marked the end of Reconstruction, the return of segragation and the harmful terror activities of the KKK (Ku Klux Klan).
 1879 became known as "The Year of The Great Exodusters" becasue of the massive migration of African Americans from the south, reached Peak in 1879.
In 1881 Singleton began a new phrase in his campagin to help his people. He organized a party called the United Colored Links. This group was in a section of Topeka Kansas which was known as "Tennessee Town"
In 1883 Singleton switched directions again, he founded an organization called the Cheif League. This organization encouraged blacks to emigrate to the Island of Cyprus. Very few people followed Paps call so in 1885 he made the Trans-Atlantic act to help African Americans return to there home land of Africa.  By 1887 this group had also failed.
Singleton suffered frome poor health and was forced to retire from his self-appointed mission. In 1892  Benjamin "Pap" Singleton died.
Bibliography
Key to the West-Pap Singleton http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/singleton.htm  5/11/05
Benjamin "Pap" Singleton http://www.kshs.org/portraits/singlton_benjamin.htm 5/9/05
Benjamin "Pap" Singleton http://www.tnstate.edu/library/digital/single.htm 5/9/05
"Pap" Singleton, The Moses of the colored Exodus http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/fleming/fleming.html 5/12/05
Emily Catron

8th American History

2005 Project