The Great Migration: Post-Civil War

The change in transportation led to social changes as well. Due to the construction of railroads in the urban areas there was more settlement in places where transportation was available such as New York. Due to the increase in transportation, white plantation owners increased their need for slave labor on the cotton farms as well as stricter slave code policies were increased in the South. Due to the advanced railroad system Americans are able to move westward very easily. All the migrants were in search for a new life and quick riches. In 1848-1855 Americans moved west because of the California Gold Rush. The gold rush attracted Chinese migrants to the western United States. Some migrants planned to take advantage of the public lands that the federal government was selling in order to

Similar to The Great Migration, The Second Great Migration was the movement of more than five million African Americans from the South to the North, Midwest and West from 1941 to 1970. Between 1930 and 1950, the number of Southern tenant farmers was cut roughly in half, while the number of tractors tripled from 1940 to 1950 (“Second Great Migration: Historical Overview”). Adding to the troubles, many planters started to use the mechanized cotton picker. The need for laborers at harvest time was therefore drastically decreased. Besides a terrible economic situation, Southerners, as they had done during the Great Migration, were also fleeing Jim Crow. Also, with little hope of glow in the justice system, African Americans were at the crime of abusive employers, landlords, and almost anyone bent on depriving them of their rights (“Second Great Migration”). Once World War II came about and the United States became engaged in a two-front war against Japan and Germany, production shifted into higher gear. In addition to the usual needs for armaments, clothing, food, and training facilities, the naval war with Japan stimulated increased shipbuilding and the making of naval material, much of it directed to and through Pacific coast ports.

After the civil war, up until the early 1900s, the need for a larger workforce grew as industrialization expanded. Samuel Slater brought the industrial revolution from England, and even since then, there were people trying to get better working conditions. Due to the growth in population by immigrants and expansion of industrialization, the working conditions became worse and worse, causing workers to suffer. Many people fought to solve this problem and changed many American’s lives for the better.

“Berlin, Ira. The Making of African America The Four Great Migrations. By Ira Berlin. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Pp 289”

The Great Migration was a massive movement of African Americans from the South to the North from 1863 to 1960. The largest spike in this migration occurred from about 1910 to 1920.

Around 1914 to 1920, over 500,000 African Americans had gathered their belongings and embarked on a journey to the North. World War I and the economic boom that accompanied it created the conditions that made the entrance of black migrants into northern industries possible. However, until then European immigrants had been arriving at an annual rate that surpassed the North’s total black population, thus providing employers with

African Americans participated in the Great migration because they were terrorized and looked down upon in the South. They were lynched, housing situations were terrible, there were no jobs or education accessible to them. Economic inequality was a huge issue, African Americans worked unfair labor practices which made it easy when jobs became available in the North. Floods in Alabama and Mississippi pushed African Americans out of the area, as well as the impact that the boll weevil had on the crops, it took out cotton, the key cash crop (pg. 46-47). The segregation laws in the South were redundant and they led to a great deal of mob violence, particularly in Georgia and South Carolina (pg. 52).

The South was a complete mess after the Civil War. The early part of the 20th century brought many changes for African Americans. There was a difficult challenge of helping newly free African American slaves assimilate among their white counterparts. They suffered from crop failures, economic hardships, and the early failures of Reconstruction in the south. So as result many Southern African Americans migrated to northern cities in search of employment and a chance at a better life. However, Southern African Americans migrating to northern cities quickly discovered that they were not able to enjoy the same social and economic mobility experienced by their European immigrant counterparts arriving around the same time. There were many

The Great Migration seemed to begin again after a short period of time during the Great Depression. The price of crops fell dramatically during the Great Depression, causing African Americans to leave the South, mostly to the western United States this time, though some still traveled to northern cities. They moved to western cities, particularly in California, for more economic opportunity since the need for farmers had declined thanks to government plans to help stop the Great Depression. Jim Crow Laws were still enforced in the South and African Americans continued to leave to find better race relations. “Although lynching had greatly diminished by 1935 - there were eighteen lynchings that year - violence was still prevalent in the South. People were threatened, beaten, fired from their jobs, and publicly humiliated.” African Americans had to flee from the South and from the violence that was attributed to the region. Another reason for this second Great Migration was because of World War II. Many industries would switch to making wartime goods which called for extra labor. Men would go off to fight, and women and African Americans would be able to fill the job left behind. Family members and newspapers also added to the new movement. Letters would be sent back to families still in the South and explain how much better it was and the economic opportunity. Some newspapers would urge African Americans to move from the South for better relations in regards to race, and for

During World War I, 4,734,991 people were involved, during World War II 16,112,566 were involved, during the Korean War, 5,720,000 were involved, and during the Vietnam War, 8,744,000 were involved. (America’s) These created a situation where large amounts of people were removed from their jobs. These jobs needed to be filled, along with the myriad of other jobs that were created during the migration. Southern African Americans seemed to be a solution, as they were trying to get out of their current situations, and the north needed workers. At times, northern companies sent recruiters to draw more southern African American to work in the north. (The Great)The north needed people to take these jobs, and southern African Americans fit the bill.

“Between 1830 and 1860, southerners experienced dramatically different developments than northerners. In every way, cotton became king” (Shultz, 2014, p. 212). To grow cotton the southerners needed slaves and land. So, when the southerners moved to the southwestern parts, they brought slaves with them. Because of this, southerners did not need big cities. Because they did not have big cities there was not a need of a lot of jobs, therefore they did not attract immigrants. “This was the period when southerners solidified their plantation economy and defense of it – one based on superiority of the white race” (Shultz, 2014, p. 212).

At the start of the twentieth century, America was still facing racial inequality post-Civil War and segregation of whites and blacks after the Reconstruction Era. With the blacks being fed up with their current conditions, they participated in the Great Migration, in which they moved from the South to the North for a better life filled with more opportunities; blacks were ready for real reform of American society. Realizing the seriousness of this

During the Great War, industrial cities in the North and Midwest profited greatly. However due to white men enlisting in World War I and the United States government halt on immigration from Europe, these industrial cities experienced severe labor shortages. To fulfill these job shortages, northern manufacturers recruited throughout the South causing what is known as The Great Migration, where at least 500,000 African-Americans moved from the South to Northern and Midwestern cities.

The Great Migration brought about changes that would bring prosperity to most, but little did they know, it would come with a price. That price was endured through various social, economic, and political challenges that occurred during this harsh time in black history. Many opportunities were available for families that would travel far to take advantage of opportunities that would start a new beginning. The Great Migration was a movement of hope that there is a land that is free of oppression and strife. However, black families in the north faced issues that were troubling and contradicting to their belief of the north. Their thoughts of living racism free and gaining economic power was far fetch when they experienced the challenges of the north. The challenges blacks faced during the Great Migration paved the way for numerous opportunities and breakthroughs we have experienced and have not experienced today.

With the large scale exodus of African Americans from the south during the period (1916-1920), this report by U.S Department of Labor, Division of Negro Economics works to find the potential cause of this large scale exodus. Upon discussing this topic with an “educated, professional” black, they believe that a prominent reason good be the high wages in the north. Further research regarding the topic, bring them to the conclusion that search of adventure, high wages and better social standing are the prominent reasons for this exodus. I intend to use this excerpt to illustrate the distinguished reasons for great migrations, which was an influential reason for the large number of black population in Harlem, New York.