THE EXODUS TO THE WEST Having come through the halcyon days of the Reconstruction only to find themselves reduced almost to the status of slaves, many Negroes deserted the South for the promising west to grow up with the country.

The immediate causes were doubtless political.

_Bulldozing_, a rather vague term, covering all such crimes as political injustice and persecution, was the source of most complaint.

The abridgment of the Negroes' rights had affected them as a great calamity.

They had learned that voting is one of the highest privileges to be obtained in this life and they wanted to go where they might still exercise that privilege.