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Contribution #253 of 365
Emma Grigsby
Nicodemus Settler and Reconstruction-Era Kansas Pioneer
1870s–1900s
The contribution
How this work helped shape America
Born enslaved in Kentucky, Emma Grigsby gained her freedom and became part of the post-Civil War movement of Black Americans seeking greater economic independence in the West. She settled in Nicodemus, Kansas, where formerly enslaved families established homes, farms and community institutions, contributing through settlement and household economic activity to the development and endurance of one of the nation's best-known Black western communities.