Selling The Heartland

German Immigration to Kansas

What is the difference?

Immigration- a person entering a country

Emigration- a person exiting their country

1854

Kansas was opened to settlement 250,000 Germans set out to emigrate

Emigration

Crossing last 40 days Bunk: 10 ft by 5ft and 3ft high Sailing hazards Fire Disease

Ship Overcrowding

Emigration

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1819-1829

1850-1900

Emigration

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101214161820

1st Qtr

185018751890

Homestead Act

160 acre land plots Public domain lands to farmers Improve the land New Immigrants

Pacific Railway Act

Allotments of Public Subsidize building of railroads Railroads would sell land holdings

Railroads over seas

Kansas Pacific Santa Fe Ellinwood, Kansas

Homestead Farm

German Settlement

German Belt New England Emigrant Aid Society Fort Leavenworth Atchison

Other Aid Groups

German Society of Pennsylvania New York, Pittsburg, Milwaukee, St. Paul

Practical Counsel and Information for German Emigrants

Offers to arrivals Employment Legal Aid Banking services Information

German Belt

Chicago, Illinois Cincinnati, Ohio Indiana Missouri Wisconsin Iowa

Atchison

Kansas Zeitung First to sell the heartland Reach Germans on both sides of the

Atlantic

Why would you need to sell Kansas?

Know as the great American desert 1870- only 13% of Kansas’ population 1870- 25% of Nebraska population

Der Courier

Took on the Great American Desert “They also show they abundant

rainfall to be quite sufficient and that the attribute ‘dry’ is utterly unwarranted.

Illinois Zeitung

Craftsmen $2-4 Buy farm land at $1.25 Horse cost $60-100 Cattle $16-30

Standard/Benchmark/Indicator

Citation

"Selling the Heartland: Agents, Agencies, Press and Policies Promoting German Emigration to Kansas in the Nineteenth Century." Kansas History 12 (Autumn 1989): 150-159.