BENJAMIN SINGLETON

EARLY YEARS

• I was born into slavery in Tennessee in 1809. Most of my life was spent working and getting punished for doing bad things. I hated being a slave. I spent 37 years being a slave.

START OF CAREER

• I escaped for my freedom in 1846 and I moved to Kansas to start a new life. No longer a slave I was happy to be free. I wanted to stand up for African-America rights. I established black owned settlements.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• After the civil war I returned to Tennessee and found thousands of slave. I wanted to make their lives better. I wanted to make Tennessee farmland better for blacks but the plan failed because white landowners refused to sell at a fair price.

HARDSHIPS

• I had many hardships back then. Black people could not go to certain restaurants. It was the time of segregation and it was the worst. Whites were disrespectful to us and called us mean names. They kicked us out of places and threatened to call the police on us. It was horrible, me and the others traveled back to Kansas to start a new life.

FINAL DAYS

• I had several children. Two of my children's names were Emily, born in 1840 and Sarah, born around 1858 in Michigan. I died on February 17, 1900 in Kansas City, Missouri. I was burned in Union Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri on February 26, 1900. I lived to be 90-91 years old.