Exodusters Teacher Resources
Find Exodusters lesson plans and worksheets
Showing 33 resources
Middle Tennessee State University
Fights, Freedom, and Fraud: Voting Rights in the Reconstruction Era
As part of a study of post Civil War era, young historians investigate the changes in voting rights during the Reconstruction Era (1863-1876), the fraud involved in the Hayes-Tilden presidential election of 1876, and efforts by Pap...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
The Homestead Act
To understand how the Homestead Act of 1862 changed the US and the lives of the people during that time, class members examine primary source materials including letters, broadsides, and images. They then assume the voice of a...
PBS
African-Americans in the American West
Secondary learners explore the westward movement of African Americans. Segmented into four time periods, the lesson provides an overview of how African Americans experienced westward expansion. Learners view PBS specials on the...
Curated OER
Social Studies: The Black West
Students assess the influence of African Americans in the western United States from the sixteenth century to the present. They examine the Black-Spanish heritage, slavery and freedom on the frontier, along with African American...
Curated OER
Justin and the World's Best Biscuits
In this literature comprehension worksheet, 6th graders complete ten short answer questions based upon their knowledge of the events in the book Justin and the World's Best Biscuits.
Curated OER
A Divided Community
Learners work in teams to research the history of African migration and immigration in the U.S. They present their research in a town hall discussion format and then write a paragraph about their experiences.
Curated OER
Freedmen & Jim Crow
In this United States history worksheet, middle schoolers utilize a word bank of 10 terms or phrases to answer 10 fill in the blank questions about the African American experience following the Civil War. A short answer question is...
Curated OER
African American Homesteaders
Learners analyze the reasons African-Americans settled in the area to be known as Nebraska. Using primary source documents, they read about the challenges they faced and compare their growth and distribution of African-Americas in the...
Curated OER
National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: Exodusters
Read about the reasons for the extensive black migration to Kansas, especially in the 1870s. These emigrants were called Exodusters. From the National Park Service.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: The Homestead Act and the Exodusters
Explains what the Homestead Act of 1862 was and what it meant for settlers, as well as the Exodus of 1879 when many African Americans became exodusters and left the South. Includes questions for students at end.
Legends of America
Legends of Kansas: Exodusters of Kansas
A look at the exodusters and the reasons the blacks left the South and migrated to Kansas after the Civil War.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: The Exodusters
Learn about the Exodusters, thousands of African Americans, from the southern states along the Mississippi River, who migrated to Kansas.
PBS
Pbs the West: Exodusters
Contains a description of the Exodusters and their impact on the American West through their immigration.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Exodusters: African American Migration to the Great Plains
The resources here, including letters, photographs, official documents, and maps, represent the exodus of African Americans from the South to the Great Plains in the late 1800s.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: The Homestead Act and the Exodusters
The Homestead Act of 1862 gave free land to Americans willing to improve it, regardless of race, sex, or nation of origin.
New York Public Library
In Motion: African American Migration Experience: Western Migration: To Kansas
From the extensive site about African-American migrations, this part of the site focuses on Exodusters and African-Americans who moved to Kansas after the Civil War. Read first-person accounts and see photographs of these hardy...
PBS
Pbs: Archives of the West: Photo: Exodusters Wait for Steamer
Photo of exodusters waiting for a steamboat to take them to the west in late 1870s.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Nicodemus National Historic Site
This site from the National Park Service provides the history of Nidodemus, Kansas, first western town planned by and for African-Americans. Settled by exodusters, the town served as a symbol as a land of opportunity for blacks escaping...
Curated OER
The Exoduster Movement, Benjamin Pap Singleton
Contains text and photos on the African American exodus to the West. Includes primary source documents and maps from the era.
Curated OER
Exodusters en Route to Kansas
Contains text and photos on the African American exodus to the West. Includes primary source documents and maps from the era.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Stories of the Westward Expansion: Exodus to Freedom
Contains an article written on the African American exodus to Kansas to farm in the late 19th century.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: History and Culture
An extensive site that covers many aspects of the Homestead Act, including biographies, charts, and the text of the act. From the National Park Service.
OpenStax
Open Stax: u.s. History: The Westward Spirit
From a chapter on America's expansion westward in a history textbook. This section looks at how Americans felt about westward expansion in the mid-1800s, and ways that the federal government promoted migration. Includes review questions.
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: African American Settlers
This presents an overview of African Americans moving and settling in the West.