Israelites from Egypt, _The Promised Land_, _Crossing over Jordan_
(the Ohio River), and _Beulah Land_. At times demonstrations took on
a rather spectacular aspect, as when a party of 147 from Hattiesburg,
Mississippi, while crossing the Ohio River, held solemn ceremonies.
These migrants knelt down and prayed; the men stopped their watches
and, amid tears of joy, sang the familiar songs of deliverance, "I
done come out of the Land of Egypt with the good news." The songs
following in order were "Beulah Land" and "Dwelling in Beulah Land."
One woman of the party declared that she could detect an actual
difference in the atmosphere beyond the Ohio River, explaining that it
was much lighter and that she could get her breath more easily.[53]

The general direction of the spread of the movement was from east to
west. While efforts were being made to check the exodus from Florida,
the good citizens of Texas were first beginning to note a stir of
unrest in their sections. On the other hand, the march of the boll
weevil, that stripped the cotton fields of the South, was from west to
east. Where there was wide unemployment, depression and poverty as a
result of the great floods in Alabama, the cutting down of the cane
area in Louisiana, the boll weevil in Mississippi, there were to be
found thousands who needed no other inducement save the prospect of
a good job. Indeed, it is alleged by some negroes that the myriads of
labor agents who were said to be operating in the South were creatures
of the imagination of an affrighted Southland; that but few were
actually offering positions in the North; but their success was due to
the overpowering desire on the part of the negroes to go.[54]

In September of 1916 a Georgia correspondent of the _Atlanta
Constitution_ wrote:

For the past two or three weeks I have been receiving two
or more letters daily from people in all sections of Georgia
asking my advice as to the advisability of the colored people
leaving the State in large numbers, as they have been leaving
for the past six months. I think it is a mistake for our
people to sell and practically give their earnings of years
just on a hearsay that they will be given larger salaries and
great advantages in some other part of the country.

It will be remembered that the State of South Carolina was not
immediately affected. It was not until the discussions bearing on the
negro's insecurity and economic