Leah's Choice
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2009
Much has been made of Lincoln's suggestion that former slaves, after the war, might be better off in a country or colony separate from whites, and in some instances this has been interpreted as bigotry.
If I recall correctly, President Lincoln never intended to make this mandatory. It was his idea to allow the individual to make the decision for himself (or herself). And I believe I read that Congress was willing to fund that kind of project.
I would submit that Abraham Lincoln, being a highly intelligent and intuitive man, had a pretty good idea of what life would be like for black people, and also for white people after the ratification of the emancipation proclamation. In the South, the fury of being deprived of their "property," was a given. In the North, the concern that free black's would be given jobs (at a lower wage) ordinarily held by whites. And over all of it was the sense of superiority held by most white Americans, much of which still exists in this country even today.
If we look back on the past 145 years since the war ended, and the horrific treatment of African Americans, the lynchings, beatings, the terrorizing in the South, and the social ostracism in the North, along with the economic repression, it seems clear that Lincoln was able to see that freedom for blacks meant only that they would no longer be owned by the white man.
Lincoln wanted total peace, not just cessation of fighting and killing, and he was able to see that the mixing of the races would only trigger a new kind of war.
The flip side of this, from the point of view of the freed slave, was that the United States was their home. They knew nothing else, so it's understandable that the majority of them would not want to leave everything that was familiar to them.
I believe that Lincoln's idea of colonizing freed slaves was well intended, but not necessarily realistic. While it's true that Lincoln believed that black folks were inferior to whites as did most people in that era, he recognized their humanity and need for equality and understood that they could only attain that if they were separated from whites. President Lincoln knew his own people, and he knew that they were, at least in his time, unable to accept black people as equals. Unfortunately, there are still people today who have not managed to put aside their prejudices, and although we have made progress, we still have a long road to travel.
If I recall correctly, President Lincoln never intended to make this mandatory. It was his idea to allow the individual to make the decision for himself (or herself). And I believe I read that Congress was willing to fund that kind of project.
I would submit that Abraham Lincoln, being a highly intelligent and intuitive man, had a pretty good idea of what life would be like for black people, and also for white people after the ratification of the emancipation proclamation. In the South, the fury of being deprived of their "property," was a given. In the North, the concern that free black's would be given jobs (at a lower wage) ordinarily held by whites. And over all of it was the sense of superiority held by most white Americans, much of which still exists in this country even today.
If we look back on the past 145 years since the war ended, and the horrific treatment of African Americans, the lynchings, beatings, the terrorizing in the South, and the social ostracism in the North, along with the economic repression, it seems clear that Lincoln was able to see that freedom for blacks meant only that they would no longer be owned by the white man.
Lincoln wanted total peace, not just cessation of fighting and killing, and he was able to see that the mixing of the races would only trigger a new kind of war.
The flip side of this, from the point of view of the freed slave, was that the United States was their home. They knew nothing else, so it's understandable that the majority of them would not want to leave everything that was familiar to them.
I believe that Lincoln's idea of colonizing freed slaves was well intended, but not necessarily realistic. While it's true that Lincoln believed that black folks were inferior to whites as did most people in that era, he recognized their humanity and need for equality and understood that they could only attain that if they were separated from whites. President Lincoln knew his own people, and he knew that they were, at least in his time, unable to accept black people as equals. Unfortunately, there are still people today who have not managed to put aside their prejudices, and although we have made progress, we still have a long road to travel.
Bringing the