Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809 – February 17, 1900) was an American activist and businessman best known for his role in establishing African American settlements in Kansas. A former slave from Tennessee who escaped to freedom in Ontario, Canada in 1846, he soon returned to the United States, settling for a period in Detroit, Michigan. He became a noted abolitionist, community leader, and spokesman for African-American civil rights.
Singleton returned to Tennessee during the Union occupation in 1862, but soon concluded that blacks would never achieve economic equality in the white-dominated South. After the end of Reconstruction, Singleton organized the movement of thousands of black colonists, known as Exodusters, to found settlements in the free state of Kansas. A prominent voice for early black nationalism, he became involved in promoting and coordinating black-owned businesses in Kansas and developed an interest in the Back-to-Africa movement.
Early life and education
Although it is known that Benjamin Singleton was born in 1809 into slavery in Davidson County near Nashville, Tennessee, details of his early life remain scant. He was the son of a white father and an enslaved black mother. As a youth, he was trained as a carpenter but regretted never learning to read and write. Reportedly Singleton made several attempts to run away but was unsuccessful.
In 1846, Singleton managed to escape to freedom. He made his way north along the Underground Railroad to Windsor, Ontario, and remained there a year before relocating to Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit, he lived as a scavenger and used what resources he could to help other escaped slaves find their way to freedom in Canada. Singleton lived in Detroit until after the Civil War was underway. During this time, he worked as a carpenter.
Separatism
After the Union Army occupied Middle Tennessee in 1862, Singleton returned and took up residence in Nashville, Tennessee, believing his freedom would be protected within Union lines. He worked as a cabinetmaker and coffin maker. As freedmen were still subject to white racial violence and political problems, Singleton concluded that blacks would have no chance for equality in the South. Disgusted by political leaders who failed to deliver on promises of equality for freedmen, in 1869 Singleton joined forces with Columbus M. Johnson, a black minister in Sumner County, and began looking for ways to establish black economic independence.
In 1874, Singleton and Johnson founded the Edgefield Real Estate Association, with the goal of helping African Americans acquire land in the Nashville area. White landowners were unwilling to bargain with them and wanted too high prices for their land. Convinced that freedmen must leave the South to achieve true economic independence, in 1875 Singleton began to explore the idea of planting black colonies in the American West. His real estate organization was renamed the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association. In 1876, Singleton and Johnson traveled to Kansas to scout land in Cherokee County in the southeastern corner of the state. Heartened by what he saw, Singleton returned to Nashville and began recruiting settlers for a proposed colony.
Singleton colonies
In the summer of 1877, Singleton led approximately seventy-three black settlers to Cherokee County near the town of Baxter Springs. Once the settlers arrived, they began negotiating with the Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad for land to build their proposed Singleton Colony. Their timing was late, as rich lead deposits had been discovered in the area the previous year, which led to a mining boom and caused land prices to rise too high for their funds. Without the ability to buy land, they could not create a colony in Cherokee County. Singleton began looking elsewhere.
He searched for government land which his settlers could acquire through the 1862 Homestead Act. He found some available land on what had been the former Kaw Indian Reservation near the town of Dunlap, Kansas, on the borders of Morris and Lyon counties. Dunlap was situated along the tracks of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, familiarly called the Katy Railroad, which extended into Kansas from Missouri. The land was marginal, but in the spring of 1878, Singleton's settlers left middle Tennessee for Kansas via steamboats on the Cumberland River. The following year they officially established the Dunlap Colony. More than 2400 settlers emigrated from the Nashville and Sumner County areas. Most settlers lived in dugouts during their first year on the Great Plains. They stuck it out and made the colony a success.