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The Black Migration

__Book Cover of //Their Eyes Were Watching God//__

Industrialization brought radical changes not only to the way people lived and worked but also to the identity of their souls. Among African Americans of the South, industrialization acted as the stimulus that compelled them to migrate to the North for the sole purpose of finding a future that would give them freedom. Industrialization came at a moment when blacks were ready for a change that would deeply define their place in America. In the novel, //Their Eyes Were Watching God//, the main character, Janie, moves from location to location to escape her husband’s cruelty, to leave behind her second husband’s death, and to follow her instincts. Nevertheless, it is not her wanting to run from her past that pushes her, rather is a search for freedom, a search for an identity. Similarly, migration of African Americans was the call for freedom, for an identity that they desperately needed. Industrialization came when they were ready to leave their past and find a new future.