Documentary backdrop image for The First Migrants (2024)

202464 minPGdocumentary

Migration Racial Justice

The First Migrants

202464 minPGdocumentary

Black homesteaders migrated from the South to the Great Plains between 1877 and 1920, establishing communities like Nicodemus, Kansas, in pursuit of land and freedom.

Migration Racial Justice

Genres

Channel: US National Archives

The First Migrants

2024• 64 minPG

Synopsis

Black homesteaders migrated from the South to the Great Plains between 1877 and 1920, establishing communities like Nicodemus, Kansas, in pursuit of land and freedom.

Synopsis

Between 1877 and 1920, Black homesteaders migrated from the Southern United States to the Great Plains in search of land and freedom, utilizing the Homestead Act to claim 650,000 acres. Notable figures such as George Washington Carver and Oscar Micheaux, along with communities like Nicodemus, Kansas, and DeWitty, Nebraska, exemplified this movement. These individuals sought opportunities to thrive free from the constraints of Black codes and violence, laying the groundwork for the larger Great Migration of Black Americans out of the South.

Comments

What are people saying?

Play More Like This

Exodus to Kansas: The Exoduster Movement (2011)

Exodus to Kansas: The Exoduster Movement

The Exoduster movement marked the first voluntary mass migration of African Americans to Kansas, prompting significant national attention and a Senate investigation.

Exodus to Kansas: The Exoduster Movement

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space (2023)

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

2023•1h52m•★5.0TMDB

Over 100 folklore pieces collected by Zora Neale Hurston during her travels shaped her reputation as a leading authority on Black cultural narratives.

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (2/3) (2025)

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (2/3)

German-speaking emigrants who left for North America by 1750 faced hardships as indentured servants and significantly contributed to U.S. industrialization.

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (2/3)

South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War (2021)

South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War

In 1848, most of modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona was free territory, influencing the migration of enslaved people to Mexico.

South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War

The First Kentucky Derby (2023)

The First Kentucky Derby

Thirteen of the fifteen jockeys in the first Kentucky Derby in 1875 were African American, a fact largely overlooked in contemporary accounts.

The First Kentucky Derby

Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South (2022)

Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South

Nearly half a million free people of color lived in the United States on the eve of the Civil War, with over 250,000 in the South.

Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South

How Property Law Is Used to Appropriate Black Land (2020)

How Property Law Is Used to Appropriate Black Land

By 1910, African Americans owned around 16 million acres of land, but much of it was lost through violence and legal manipulation over the decades.

How Property Law Is Used to Appropriate Black Land

A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House (2022)

A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House

Frederick Douglass visited the White House in August 1863 to advocate for better treatment of African American soldiers during the Civil War.

A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (1/3) (2025)

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (1/3)

German-speaking refugees fleeing famine, disease, and religious persecution between 1618 and 1748 established a significant camp in London amid political turmoil.

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (1/3)

Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments that Redeemed America (2017)

Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments that Redeemed America

The 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Cavalry were among the first black regiments formed during the Civil War, despite widespread opposition.

Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments that Redeemed America

Zebras On The Move (2020)

Zebras On The Move

Hundreds of thousands of zebras migrate across East Africa, facing significant dangers that threaten their survival in the Mara ecosystem.

Zebras On The Move

Most Dangerous Ways To School | Best Of - Peru, Nicaragua & Mexico (2024)

Most Dangerous Ways To School | Best Of - Peru, Nicaragua & Mexico

Children in Peru's Lake Titicaca region paddle for up to four hours daily to reach their schools, facing harsh weather and challenging conditions.

Most Dangerous Ways To School | Best Of - Peru, Nicaragua & Mexico

Explore The First Migrants

Where else to watch

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space (2023)

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

2023•1h52m•★5.0TMDB

Over 100 folklore pieces collected by Zora Neale Hurston during her travels shaped her reputation as a leading authority on Black cultural narratives.

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

No digital watch option in your country

Ancestors in the Americas: Coolies, Sailors, Settlers (1996)

Ancestors in the Americas: Coolies, Sailors, Settlers

1996•1h4m•★9.0TMDB

From the 1700s to the 1900s, early Asian immigrants from the Philippines, China, and India faced harsh conditions while settling in the Americas.

Ancestors in the Americas: Coolies, Sailors, Settlers

Gospel (2024)

Gospel

2024•1h•★4.6TMDB

Mahalia Jackson's influence in Chicago highlights gospel music's evolution from slavery roots to a powerful force for social change and religious expression among African Americans.

White Man Walking (2025)

White Man Walking

2025•1h10m•★5.0TMDB

Rob Bliss walks over 1,500 miles through the American South in two months, wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt and inviting others to join him.

White Man Walking

Escape to the Great Dismal Swamp (2018)

Escape to the Great Dismal Swamp

2018•44m•★7.0TMDB

Archaeologists from the University of North Carolina use modern dating techniques to validate historical accounts of runaway slaves in the Great Dismal Swamp.

Escape to the Great Dismal Swamp

America: Promised Land (2017)

America: Promised Land

2017•2h52m•★6.7TMDB

Massive immigration patterns to the United States are examined through key historical events such as the Dutch Fur Trade, the Great Potato Famine, and the California Gold Rush.

America: Promised Land

Merkel (2022)

Merkel

2022•1h37m•★7.0TMDB

16 years of Angela Merkel's leadership as Chancellor of Germany saw her address major issues like the European debt crisis and climate change.

Browse more like this

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (2/3) (2025)

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (2/3)

German-speaking emigrants who left for North America by 1750 faced hardships as indentured servants and significantly contributed to U.S. industrialization.

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (2/3)

No digital watch option in your country

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (1/3) (2025)

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (1/3)

German-speaking refugees fleeing famine, disease, and religious persecution between 1618 and 1748 established a significant camp in London amid political turmoil.

European Emigration: Forgotten Stories (1/3)

No digital watch option in your country

Most Dangerous Ways To School | Best Of - Peru, Nicaragua & Mexico (2024)

Most Dangerous Ways To School | Best Of - Peru, Nicaragua & Mexico

Children in Peru's Lake Titicaca region paddle for up to four hours daily to reach their schools, facing harsh weather and challenging conditions.

Most Dangerous Ways To School | Best Of - Peru, Nicaragua & Mexico

No digital watch option in your country

Black Far West (2022)

Black Far West

2022•1h36m•★7.6TMDB

More than 30% of cowboys in the American West were African-American, a fact often overlooked in traditional narratives of the frontier.

Surviving the Dust Bowl (1998)

Surviving the Dust Bowl

1998•55m•★9.0TMDB

Millions of tons of topsoil blew away in minutes during the Dust Bowl, a period marked by severe drought and devastating dust storms across the Southern Plains.

Surviving the Dust Bowl

Outlaws & Gunslingers (2009)

Outlaws & Gunslingers

2009•3h5m•★8.0TMDB

For 35 years after the Civil War, the North and South continued their conflict in the Wild West, leading to legendary clashes between outlaws and lawmen.

Outlaws & Gunslingers

Blues Highway (1994)

Blues Highway

1994•30m•★7.0TMDB

Millions of African-Americans migrated from the Mississippi Delta to northern cities during the 1930s and 1940s, as depicted in this 30-minute film.

We Are the Roots: Black Settlers and their Experiences of Discrimination on the Canadian Prairies (2018)

We Are the Roots: Black Settlers and their Experiences of Discrimination on the Canadian Prairies

2018•1h8m•★4.0TMDB

Nineteen descendants of early 1900s African American settlers share their experiences of discrimination in Alberta and Saskatchewan after fleeing the United States.

We Are the Roots: Black Settlers and their Experiences of Discrimination on the Canadian Prairies

The Dignified Return (2023)

The Dignified Return

Eduardo documents his daily commutes to a transnational customer service center in Mexico after being deported from the United States.

The Dignified Return

Is this your film?

If you made this film or hold the rights to it, we'd like to talk. We can license it and pay you a share of what it earns.

License it with us →