"Father of the Exodus": Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809-1892) Benjamin Singleton was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Enslaved, Singleton was sold several times, b ut always managed to escape. Eventually, he fled to Canada, then settled in Detroit, Michigan, where he ran a boardinghouse that also sheltered black runaways. After the Civil War, Singleton returned to Tennessee and began organizing an effort to buy up Tennessee farmland for blacks; his plan failed because white landowners refused to sell at fair prices. Between 1877 and 1879, Singleton and his partner, Columbus Johnson, formed a company that helped hundreds of black Tennesseans move to Kansas. Those who moved to Kansas became known as "Exodusters." Singleton was described as the "Father of the Exodus." By 1879, some 50,000 blacks had fled to freedom in Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois, while thousands more had been turned back by whites patrolling the rivers and roads...