Plantation owners wouldn't let you leave. Plantation owners had much to lose. [African-American farmers] were illiterate and they had to depend on the plantation owner. He would give them so much flour for use during the year, cornmeal or sugar or that sort of thing and then at the end of the year you would go to settle up with him and you would always be deeply in debt to him. That was his way of keeping people. You never got out of debt with him…the North offered better opportunities for blacks…I've heard that recruiters were often in danger in Mississippi if they came down to get workers for northern companies...I never thought of this before, but perhaps the move up North was almost more important to the man, was almost a form of liberation for the man more than for the woman.

A lynching is a public killing of someone for an alleged crime without a trial. Alleged offenses could include anything from murder to whistling at a white woman, as in the case of Emmett Till. Lynchings were often committed by mobs that sometimes included prominent members of the community like police officers. The number of lynchings in the US skyrocketed after 1880. The highest number of lynchings during that time period occurred in Mississippi, with 581 recorded. Georgia was second with 531, and Texas was third with 493. 72% of lynching victims were African Americans. Mobs were so brazen and confident they had done no wrong that they often took pictures of the lynchings.

White southerners took notice of the exodus to the north, as is evident in this newspaper article from Arizona. Some tried to convince or even coerce blacks to stay, or they tried to emphasize negative stories about life in the north.