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 THE STORY OF THE BLACK WEST BEGINS IN THE EAST, THE CITY OF PHILA- delphia. There in 1833,at the Third Annual Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color, the delegates found themselves in the middle of a debate: Should they endorse the emigration of black Americans to West Africa? After much deliberation, they chose an altogether different destination -the part of Mexico that would eventually become the state of Texas. That the idea of emigration
came up at all reflected the steady erosion of the rights of free blacks in the
North. The resolution also reflected the belief widely shared among Americans
that migration to the West offered the best opportunity to reinvent one's life.
"To those ...obliged to exchange cultivated region for a howling
wilderness," the convention's resolution declared, "we recommend
...the western wilds ...where the ploughshares of prejudice have ...been unable
to penetrate the soil." Although black Westerners did not always find the
economic and political El Dorado they sought, their pursuit of freedom and
opportunity helped transform the region and the nation.
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