First Reading "Days of the Exodusters"

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Summary “Days of the Exodusters”

In the year 1879 a fever invaded the land, not it’s a typical fever that makes you feel bad, this fever was a dream that spread around the persons, persons who want to have a freedom life, and the opportunity to was their own bosses, farming new lands.

The Africans Americans big families an friend where on move, the fever was taking effect in many persons around the country, and the journey it’s no longer a dream, a place called Kansas is the target of this journey.

In the Exodus in days of old, a man named Moses led his folk to the fertile land, a better life.

African American, traveled to Kansas under the promise to obtain fertile lands, this was their dream.

The civil war had freedom at last, after years of shackles and service, these persons deserved a new start in their lives.

The U.S. government offered some land on the wide open plains for African American, that was the opportunity to be free and work for their owns.

They need to live in these years almost five years and they need to pay a fee for five-dollar.

There was five years of hard toil, but that it’s not new for African Americans, but be the owner of their land is the dream comes true.

Many people came by wagon, some came on foot, and some came by steamboat, some by rail.

These people are the new African American pioneers was about to tame the wild frontier.

The fever was named “The Kansas fever Exodus” and as Exoduster flocked to the Promised Land, Kansas provided many possibilities for building a life in a western state, for work in the towns or homestead out on the open plans.

In western Kansas the Exodusters found parcel of land for placing their claims, now the new strugglers were about to begin, but the new pioneers learned how to live in harmony and made Kansas into their new home.

Build houses was the first task but the wood was very scarce, but they decided build with brick of sod, “sodies” was the name of their homes.

Some days on the plains were really fine, when all of life was in harmony, but then came the times of drought, of flood, of blizzards, and sweeping prairie fires.

And worse of all, perhaps, were the plagues of grasshoppers eating up the plain.

In the towns were general stores and such, where pioneers could stock up on supplies. Some exodusters chose to move on. Some even returned to the south they knew, of all the towns these pioneers built, only Nicodemus remains today.

On Nicodemus the people stayed, worked hard, and prospered at times.

Farther returns from work and children return from school as mother prepares a meal made from the fruits of their harvest.

The taste of freedom is ever so sweet.

This fever that had brought them west was fever that healed a broken people. Of a dream has led the way to a new life, of the free smile of a man who owns land back in the days of the exodusters.

Sod Homes: