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Well I guess they forgot to put this in my school books. I first read about this years ago I think in the book The Age of Gold. Jaws drop when you tell people about this.
I hadn't previously known about this little speech or it being transcribed. Interesting language. one question; as far as finding a physical place somewhere else in the world in the mid 1870's...even at that time was that an almost impossible task?
In hindsight would there have been any way he could have succeeded at his goal?
There is nothing new here. Lincoln never considered himself an abolitionist...although later in the war he made that the focus. The focus was that Lincoln's number one priority was not slavery, but preserving the union. He was pragmatic, no doubt. The article itself, not the topic, is quite inflammatory, somewhat revisionist, and thus taken out of context.
Recolonization was actually proposed as PART of the abolitionist movement in the early 1800s. It had a good intent - recolonize free slaves back to Africa because they would find the freedom and acceptance there that they would never have in the U.S., even as freedmen. Although some of the intent was also for more nefarious racist reasons. Read up about Liberia for more information and history about the movement, which the article conveniently leaves out.
When studying Lincoln, it's very interesting that to review how his thought process changed. Lots of things happened - the death of his child, the war turning into an extended blood bath, the use of black troops. Whatever the reason, he changed his views dramatically by 1863 and the war for him became about slavery.
Although it appears to be a recent discovery for you, President Lincoln's belief that freed slaves would want to go to Africa is quite well known. We have had numerous discussions of it in this forum.
While Lincoln was anti-slavery, we cannot expect that he would therefore also have held modern attitudes toward race relations.
After interviews with Frederick Douglas and other prominent freed blacks, Lincoln became aware that they were viewing America as their home to the same degree as anyone else and had no interest in Africa or any other strange land. He then dropped the export plan.
I hadn't previously known about this little speech or it being transcribed. Interesting language. one question; as far as finding a physical place somewhere else in the world in the mid 1870's...even at that time was that an almost impossible task?
In hindsight would there have been any way he could have succeeded at his goal?
Liberia for the US, Sierra Leone for the UK. The big issue in the US was raising the capital to compensate slave owners - there simply wasn't enough money, nor provisions to raise it, & then there would have been the question of setting the price. & the places slaves were returned to in Africa were deathtraps, terrible diseases, unhealthy climate, etc.
Pres. Lincoln finally decided that accepting Blacks into the military & as camp auxiliaries (cooking, digging, pioneering, pathfinding, guides, etc.) was worthwhile because it took Blacks out of the South, depriving the South of manpower, & raised the specter of Black rebellion (a great fear in the South) - & pinned down sheriffs & slave patrols there. The psychological uncertainty in the South was also worth the cost - if Blacks made good soldiers - & most of them did - then that undercut the South's rationale for holding them as slaves.
Black & other defecting guides also made Sherman's march to the sea possible - with local knowledge of rivers, fords, road nets, railroads, crops, etc. - Sherman could cut loose from his logistic base & live off the land.
Although it appears to be a recent discovery for you, President Lincoln's belief that freed slaves would want to go to Africa is quite well known. We have had numerous discussions of it in this forum.
While Lincoln was anti-slavery, we cannot expect that he would therefore also have held modern attitudes toward race relations.
After interviews with Frederick Douglas and other prominent freed blacks, Lincoln became aware that they were viewing America as their home to the same degree as anyone else and had no interest in Africa or any other strange land. He then dropped the export plan.
As I said in the post I first read about it years ago.
One thing you mention, Lincoln recognizing that the blacks would want to go back to Africa, I haven't seen that angle near as much as the reasoning that it was just better for everyone if they were gone. I.e. This is what's best for you.
Whichever book I read it in took the angle that his core belief on the subject was that there was too much hatred for the whites and them becoming part of a free society just wouldn't work. This right before the war though.
I'm just wondering why didn't he get industry involved? Hey, we will use the government to help secure land, you put a bunch of money up towards farming, natural resources extraction, whatever, and you will have a ready Made labor force. A whole society actually. And profits will pour in for you. Now yes if this happened it would have likely devolved into slavery all over again, but early on why didn't he try that?
I would think financiers would have been lining up?
As I said in the post I first read about it years ago.
One thing you mention, Lincoln recognizing that the blacks would want to go back to Africa, I haven't seen that angle near as much as the reasoning that it was just better for everyone if they were gone. I.e. This is what's best for you.
Whichever book I read it in took the angle that his core belief on the subject was that there was too much hatred for the whites and them becoming part of a free society just wouldn't work. This right before the war though.
President Lincoln thought that the slaves would be happier and better off back in Africa, and that whites would be happier when they went. Regardless of how the whites would have felt, upon learning that the blacks had no interest in being shipped to Africa, Lincoln dropped the idea.
President Lincoln thought that the slaves would be happier and better off back in Africa, and that whites would be happier when they went. Regardless of how the whites would have felt, upon learning that the blacks had no interest in being shipped to Africa, Lincoln dropped the idea.
The idea predated Lincoln's Presidency by more than a couple decades:
I know this is Wiki but it's not bad as an overview
And George Washington didn't really chop down a cherry tree, then confess to it.
However, some points.
First, it is not true that President Lincoln planned to 'to ship all the blacks out of the US'. Instead of mandating that blacks leave the United States for a colony in Central American or Liberia or wherever, Lincoln favored voluntary emigration. This is made clear in your link by Lincoln's efforts to get black leaders to support the idea, noting that one of the major barriers to such colonization plans would be that it would be a tough sell to blacks - only an issue if they're being asked, not forced, to emigrate. Indeed, in the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862, Lincoln references the "effort to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon this continent, or elsewhere".
Second, the idea of colonization by American blacks was hardly an original idea of Abraham Lincoln - it was floating around for several decades before the Civil War.
Third, it should be noted that the colonization concept was always tied to emancipation, in the hope that it (emancipation) would be politically more acceptable (to whites) if it was understood that waves of blacks would be emigrating (leaving the United States). But once Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation - which made no mention at all of colonization - the scheme was dead. In 1864, President Lincoln signed legislation withdrawing federal funding for colonization, and in any case the administration had spent less than 15% of the funding that had been allocated. Those actions are hardly one of a man bent upon ridding the United States of blacks.
As such, no one should fall prey to the idea that Lincoln's assassination was the only thing that averted black colonization. Indeed, given how he dropped the idea once he had the political capital to issue the Emancipation Proclamation without evoking such, it strongly suggests that his support for it was in part if not entirely political as opposed to personal.
The other side of the 'school history books don't mention this' coin is trying to portray Lincoln's wish that blacks would emigrate, and his efforts to get black leaders to encourage this, as an intent to - and I again quote your thread headline - ship all blacks out of the US. Neither reflect reality.
The story I've heard was that the U.S. wanted to buy Cozumel from Mexico and send them there, but Mexico wasn't selling.
It never would've worked. I've been there a number of times and there's no way it could support a large population.
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Sound tactics & strategy
