The year 1877 was a significant one in the history of the United States and the American West. The year marked the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes as president of the United States and the failure of the Republican attempt to rebuild the Union on the basis of Black suffrage. As a result of this failure, many Black Americans determined to leave the intolerable conditions in the South and take up new lands and new opportunities in the West under the terms of the Homestead Act of 1862. These migrants became known as “Exodusters,” a reference to the biblical Exodus of the Hebrews from the land of Egypt.