Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I have declined to move any such colony to any State [country] without first obtaining the consent of the government, with an agreement on its part to receive and protect such emigrants in all the rights of freemen…. Liberia and Haiti are as yet the only countries to which colonies of African descent from here could go with certainty of being received and adopted as citizens; and I regret to say such persons contemplating colonization do not seem so willing to go to those countries
Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, 16th President of the United States (Republican, IL), Second Annual Message, December 1, 1862, Colonization of Blacks was such serious consideration that it was one of the major subjects of Lincoln’s 1862 Annual Message.
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Many whites thought that the solution to the problem of free and emancipated Negroes was to send them to Africa. They assumed that the negroes would by desirous of that solution also, but they rarely asked them. When they did, they received answers much like this one from one of the leading Black clergymen in America.
The American Colonization Society established the nation of Liberia in Africa for American Blacks. Approximately 15,000 Blacks chose to emigrate.
Lincoln later changed his mind about Colonization when some Black leaders pointed out that the Blacks had built a large part of America and also survived slavery, it they were given fair opportunity, there was no reason that they would not be able to compete and thrive.
San Domingo was on the Island of Haiti. The government had attempted to have a colony there for American Blacks. Most Negroes of the time were not enthusiastic about colonization. The San Domingo colony was not very successful and most of the colonists were very unhappy. Lincoln gave this order and those who wished to do so were returned to the United States. This quotation also refutes the argument made by a that Lincoln favored forced emigration and colonization of Negroes. Early in his career had had favored colonization {590145}, as it was called, but never forced. See {40859}. And if he was in favor of forced colonization, the easiest thing he could have done was left the dissatisfied San Domingo colonists where they were instead of going to all the trouble to repatriate them.
In 1862 the president requested a $600,000 congressional appropriation to finance a pilot program for Negroes freed by the Civil War to emigrate to Africa. He met with a delegation of Black leaders:
Actually Blacks did all three. Some returned to Africa and established the state of Liberia. Others went to South America and most stayed in the United States and continued to help build the nation.
This is the clause that many Palestinians point to as supporting their position that even thought most Arab refugees left Israel voluntarily, they had a right of return.
This was has report on Buxton a community of Blacks in Ontario Canada that had been established by the Elgin Association. See {613967}.
The law went even further by requiring anyone employing a Black to have seen their certificate of freedom. This law in effect made slave escape to Ohio legally very difficult.
More than a decade before the Civil War there were many proposals and plans for ending slavery in America without war. Many of these debates took place amongst major religious institutions. John Price Durbin, an eminent Methodist clergyman and former president of Dickinson College proposed one. His plan called for compensation to slaveholders and the relocation of the freed slaves to Africa—a form of ethnic cleansing. Brown disagreed with forced colonization to Africa. Instead, he suggested California as a voluntary option. Brown’s idea received about 9 months of serious consideration, but in January of 1848, gold was discovered in California and the Gold Rush was on. Black colonization of California was off the table.
Grant had negotiated for what is today the Dominican Republic to become a Black state where American Negroes could go. However, like Lincoln before him and most others arguing for Negro emigration, he underestimated the Negro desire to remain where they were and just be free with equal opportunity. See {625675}, {625686}, {625684}, {625683}, {625682} for additional quotations arguing for Black emigration.
See {625675}, {625686}, {625684}, {625682}, {625676} for additional quotations arguing for Black emigration.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. The “colonies” to which we was referring were the French Colonies in the Caribbean—particularly Haiti. The Black slaves had revolted against the slave-owners and had taken over all positions of authority and wore the uniforms and symbols of power including the epaulettes—the gold braid shoulder pieces that were symbols of high rank in military and diplomatic uniforms which were worn on all official occasions. Napoleon never did make good on his vow. He had many more problems with his own wars and governance in Europe. This quote does demonstrate the racism that existed in supposedly tolerant France.
Free Negroes were banned by many states and local governments or otherwise restricted in their movements and occupations. The “safety of society” referred to the belief of most Southern whites that the mere presence of free Negroes would undermine the slavery system and encourage slave revolts and retribution against the slave owners. At this point Jefferson was considering a plan to patriot Negroes back to Africa. Jefferson, at this point, thought that this might be the fairest and best solution for all.
The first Black American colonists founding Liberia, like many early settlers in a new land, had many early difficulties and many of the settlers wanted to abandon the effort and return to America. This famous statement turned the attitudes around and Liberia was founded
There was then legislation proposed to to nullify a number of Indian treaties. Indians themselves were divided as to the desirability. Mrs. Roosevelt favored negotiations and discussions with each tribe separately regarding their treaties as opposed to the proposed legislation which treated the tribes monolithically when indeed they were 500 separate tribes with different cultures, needs and desires.
See {625675}, {625686}, {625683}, {625682}, {625676} for additional quotations arguing for Black emigration.
See {625675}, {625684}, {625683}, {625682}, {625676} for additional quotations arguing for Black emigration.
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
