The Promised Land

The Promised Land: the Great Black Migration and How it Changed America by Nicholas Leman is both an informative book on the subject of the black migration from the south to the north as said in the title. The book itself takes place between 1940 and 1970, spanning the whole migration itself, along with some facts from pre-civil war times around the late 1800's. In the book, Leman covers certain different topics, spanning from the black situation in the early 1900's, to his thoughts on a better government.

Leman starts off with a basic background on how things started with the black struggle; plantations, or more specifically, cotton fields. From the cotton gin on, Leman mentions the advances made in the industry, technology wise. Regardless of the situation or the crop, the main point Leman made was that the blacks in the south were always exploited in every situation. As slaves, as workers, even as sharecroppers (which according to Leman was pretty much an extension of slavery), they were underpaid, discriminated, and always taken advantage of. Although things did get a little better from slavery, improvements were very slow at best for the overall situation. The only way black could get out of the situation was to either cheat "the boss", or to move away from it, in this case, to go up north, where Leman mentioned the benefits of better jobs with better pay, not necessarily equality, but better conditions either way.

Leman continues to tell this story by focusing in on an area and a central figure for his novel; the Mississippi Delta, where Ruby Daniels becomes the perfect example of this black oppression. Ruby Daniels is described as being born by a 15 year old mother through wedlock, raised in Clarksdale, and grew up picking cotton practically her whole life. Throughout her life, she had to endure humiliating racial discrimination in her work and society in general. Because of it all, she finally decided to try to move, ending up in Chicago where life wasn't much better. There, she gave birth to six children by three men; all of them except one had different issues including addictions, criminal records, and/or were on welfare.

Aside from Ruby's depressing situation, other situations arose for the black society in America. Leman explains how jobs were becoming harder to come by, as immigrants came into the country and jobs called for more experience in order to get them. More cultures started to come in, such as the Irish, the Slavs, and many others. One solution that came up for the jobs for these people ended up being openings in America's expanding government. Leman believes that one main solution for the black oppression however would have been a big government that devoted itself to work, family, and law. With this form of government, street crime would be lowered. Welfare programs