Benjamin “Pap” Singleton was an activist and successful entrepreneur, but he is perhaps best known as a leading Exoduster — those early Black settlers who fled slavery and found a measure of relief in Kansas. Very little is known of his formative years, but was born in Davidson County, Tennessee, in 1809, the son of a white father and an enslaved Black mother.
He trained as a carpenter as a youth and regretted that he never learned to read or write. While several early attempts to escape from bondage failed, he finally succeeded in 1846, fleeing across the border to Canada. After a brief period he returned to the States and spent a few months in Detroit. It was here he began to forge his stance on the abolition of slavery and was convinced that African Americans would never achieve equality in the white-dominated South. This viewpoint was pivotal during the Reconstruction era, inspiring his organization of thousands of Black people to join his crusade to venture west, thus the formation of the Exodusters.
Taking up residence in Kansas gave rise to other efforts by Black Americans to found all-Black towns in the Southwest, including several in Oklahoma such as Taft. Singleton’s outlook would later be part of the general Black movement for self-determination and nationalism. By 1869, he joined forces with Columbus M. Johnson, a Black minister in Sumner County, with whom he pursued independent economic progress and development.
Several years later, they founded the Edgefield Real Estate Association, mainly assisting African Americans in the acquisition of land in the Nashville area. When this effort was unsuccessful, they looked westward and in 1876 the two visionaries were in Kansas where their ideas gained traction.
A year later, Singleton led approximately 73 Black settlers to Cherokee County, near the town of Baxter Springs. He now had the land needed for his colony, but the discovery of rich deposits of lead created a mining boom that increased the cost of land. The only alternative for him was to plant his vision elsewhere.
His search led to available land in what was formerly an Indian Reservation near Dunlap, Kansas that was located along the Katy Railroad, which extended from Kansas to Missouri. It was a marginal plot of land and just enough for Singleton and his hardy followers to board steamboats on the Cumberland River and hasten there. Within a year more than 2400 settlers were there, most of them from Nashville and Sumner County. This initiative proved formidable and soon the “Great Exodus” was in motion. The impact of migrants was felt not only in Kansas but also in Missouri and Illinois. Many arrived in the territory inspired by Singleton, though they were not affiliated with his movement; he, nevertheless, came to their defense when white Kansasans objected to the heavy influx of Black migrants.
Along with his defense of the new arrivals, Singleton even stood his ground against the U.S. Senate where he was requested to testify on the causes of the Great Exodus. He rebuffed their efforts to discredit the movement and used his own life as evidence of the success of thousands of migrants. His bold assertions and brave stand against the attacks earned him the leadership of the Exodusters. Still, there was trouble ahead with the increased influx of impoverished settlers imposing a heavy financial burden on the settlement. After the Presbyterian Church took control of the settlement, Singleton ended his dealings with Dunlap.
At 72 years of age in 1881, Singleton was often referred to as “Pap.” He used what little remaining power of influence he had to help in the organization of Colored United Links (CUL). Created in Topeka, the CUL was the formation devoted to building Black-owned businesses and trade schools. It soon was a formidable organization with a little political clout, so much so that James B. Weaver of the Greenback Party met with leaders hoping to merge their mutual concerns. But the idea was stillborn.
In effect, it was another blow to Singleton’s aspirations for self-determination and equality. An even more ambitious plan of relocating to the island of Cyprus never materialized, either. Singleton’s next move was to Kansas City, now his dream was of Pan-Africanism, and in 1885 founded the UTS (United Transatlantic Society). Like Marcus Garvey, whose “Back to Africa” followed later, he never sent anyone to Africa. Now up in years and ailing, he made one last gasp in his proposal to make Oklahoma an all-Black state.
Pap Singleton, who had seven children, died on February 17, 1900, in Kansas City and was buried in Union Cemetery in the same city. One of his sons, Joshua, was a pioneer of another all-Black community called Allensworth near Tulare, California.