Descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas, preserve history of its formerly enslaved residents | KCUR

Fifth-generation Nicodemus descendant Angela Bates attracts inspiration from carrying ahead the historical past of people that left the South within the 1870s to determine a city in rural Kansas the place they may transfer nearer to the promise of freedom.

Bates, who was raised in California by dad and mom born in Nicodemus, ultimately relocated to Kansas, fashioned the Nicodemus Historic Society and campaigned to protect the documentary historical past of a city that had step by step fallen on laborious financial instances. Structural items of Nicodemus stay lately in a handful of buildings. The settlement close to the Solomon River has been designated a Nationwide Historic Web site by Congress.

“It’s at all times thrilling to speak about Nicodemus,” she mentioned. “It runs in my blood. I’m a channeler of all of these ancestors that endured slavery and have gone on earlier than me. I’m glad I’m nonetheless right here to inform their tales and to protect their historical past.”

Bates introduced her slice of oral historical past to the Spencer Analysis Library on the College of Kansas, the place a group of pictures and paperwork associated to Nicodemus has been archived. She mentioned the library served because the Fort Knox of historical past for individuals tied to Nicodemus. She lately accomplished work on a documentary about settlement of Nicodemus and the legacy of a group removed from the Kentucky hills the place many settlers have been recruited.

Her great-great-grandfather Tom Johnson was among the many first to reach in 1877. A fantastic-great-great-grandfather on her father’s facet of the household got here to Nicodemus in 1879. Whereas her dad and mom moved within the Fifties in California, the household returned to Nicodemus recurrently for celebrations of the emancipation of slaves in the US.

“I really feel very blessed to be a part of the Nicodemus legacy,” Bates mentioned. “I’m doing it not for fame, not for cash — clearly not cash — however I do it as a result of I don’t need their tales to be misplaced. I feel their tales are necessary. They’ve been part of my life. I can keep in mind sneaking round listening to the previous folks. I want I had a pen and paper at that time and brought down notes, as a result of I obtained some tales. I inform you.”

‘Religion in God that you just’re going to make a distinction’

The individuals who made a house in Nicodemus included previously enslaved residents of the central bluegrass area of Kentucky, which included Lexington and Georgetown. The target was to achieve possession of land in Kansas and put distance between themselves and aggressively enforced Jim Crow legal guidelines stalling the flexibility of Black Individuals to broaden their private expertise with freedom, Bates mentioned.

Bates mentioned the choice by greater than 300 individuals to depart Kentucky was troublesome, particularly for individuals who had been confined on plantations and had traveled little. The Nice Plains was geographically fairly completely different from the environs of Kentucky, she mentioned. She mentioned Jim Crow’s maintain on Kansas wasn’t as fierce, however that mindset was an unmistakable presence in Kansas, too.

“It’s not like Kentucky, however they’ve obtained free land,” Bates mentioned. “Your geographic mindset is tiny, however your creativeness is large and your coronary heart is even larger and your spirit and dedication is even better. And the best factor of all is that you’ve religion in God that you just’re going to make a distinction.”

Bates mentioned the early interval in Nicodemus was harsh, however Potawatomie and Osage tribe members assisted settlers. Potawatomie members on a searching journey shared recreation with Nicodemus residents within the first yr, she mentioned. Initially, homesteaders lived in dugouts or sod buildings.

She mentioned it was usually assumed the identify of the city got here from Biblical tales of Nicodemus. Nevertheless, she mentioned, the identify was drawn from a Civil Warfare-era abolitionist track “Wake Nicodemus” concerning the finish of slavery.

Residents of Nicodemus helped set up Graham County. The primary three county attorneys have been Black males, she mentioned.

Bates mentioned Nicodemus was handed over when choices have been made about building of a railroad system from Salina to Colby. Monitor was laid a number of miles from Nicodemus at Bogue. It was consequential as a result of a group of retailers in Nicodemus relocated to Bogue, she mentioned.

She mentioned the Mud Bowl years and Nice Melancholy additional eroded the enterprise group in Nicodemus. Extra households moved away over time, she mentioned, however parts of their historical past, together with 5 buildings, stay of the settlement. The preserved archive report, together with group and household images, put a face to individuals who engaged in a brave effort to reposition themselves inside the US.

“Greater than something, they introduced their spirit of dedication and cooperation, they usually did work collectively,” Bates mentioned. “Lots of people knew one another. Earlier than they got here, they have been on neighboring plantations or on the identical plantation. I feel these are a number of the issues that basically made the group cohesive over time.”

‘By no means occurred to me’

Bates mentioned there was pressure between Nicodemus and predominantly white cities and cities close by. Relations with Hill Metropolis and Bogue have been strained at instances, she mentioned, and about 20 miles away town of Stockton had a sunset rule that prohibited nonwhite individuals from remaining in metropolis limits after sundown. There was a robust bond between Nicodemus and the French-Canadian city of Damar, she mentioned.

The 160-acre core of Nicodemus was designated by the Nationwide Park Service as a nationwide historic landmark district. Bates organized the Nicodemus Historic Society within the Eighties.

Subsequently, Bates labored six years with members of the Kansas congressional delegation to safe approval from Congress to declare the homestead of previously enslaved a nationwide historic website.

“It by no means occurred to me, not one time, that it wasn’t going to occur,” Bates mentioned.

She mentioned the Nicodemus historic website and the city’s historic society wanted an infusion of monetary sources to enhance entry to the native historical past.

On Wednesday, Bates introduced a recent bundle of Nicodemus supplies so as to add to the gathering at Spencer Analysis Library at KU.

“These individuals symbolize what African-Individuals did with their freedom,” Bates mentioned. “They participated in manifest future.”

She mentioned too usually evaluation of American historical past centered on the slave expertise and the civil rights motion. The expertise of Black individuals after emancipation and through Reconstruction was typically omitted, she mentioned.

“That complete chapter is simply lacking,” she mentioned. “I’m hoping by means of the story of Nicodemus they’ll perceive what African Individuals did with their freedom.”

This story was initially revealed by the Kansas Reflector.