n
letters of that kind, individually--not no white persons, I know,
not to me, to induce anybody to come.

Q. Well, to any of the other members of your council?--A. No, I
don't think to any of the members. If they have, they haven't
said nothing to me about it.

It appears also from the evidence of Samuel L. Perry, of North
Carolina, a colored man, who accompanied most of the emigrants
from that State to Indiana, and who had more to do with the
exodus from that quarter than any other man, that the movement
had its origin as far back as 1872, as the following questions
and answers will show:

Q. You have heard a good deal of this testimony with reference to
this exodus from North Carolina. Now begin at the beginning and
tell us all you know about it.--A. Well, the beginning, I
suppose, was in this way: The first idea or the first thing was,
we used to have little meetings to talk over these matters. In
1872 we first received some circulars or pamphlets from O. F.
Davis, of Omaha, Nebraska.

Q. In 1872?--A. Yes, sir; in 1872--giving a description of
government lands and railroads that could be got cheap; and we
held little meetings then; that is, we would meet and talk about
it Sunday evenings--that is, the laboring class of our
people--the only ones I knew anything about; I had not much to do
with the big professional Negroes, the rich men. I did not
associate with them much, but I got among the workingmen, and
they would take these pamphlets and read them over.

Mr. Perry says that the feeling in favor of migrating subsided
somewhat, but sprung up again in 1876. From that time down to
1879 there were frequent consultations upon the subject, much
dissatisfaction expressed respecting their condition, and a
desire to emigrate to some part of the West. He says about "that
time I was a subscriber to the New York Herald, and from an
article in that paper the report was that the people were going
to Kansas, and we thought we could go to Kansas, too; that we
could get a colony to go West. That was last spring. We came back
and formed ourselves into a colony of some hundred men." They did
not, however, begin their westward movements until the fall of
1879, when it being ascertained by the railroad companies that a
considerable num