Had nothing to do with the war, and everything to do with the attack on American troops and illegal confiscation of Federal property. Buying the slaves was a means to an end; namely a peace treaty to end the war.
"Emancipation with compensation" was not a new idea by the time Lincoln considered it. It had been around awhile, but the abolition movement had fought tooth and nail against it.
If Lincoln had truly been "great" he would've pushed for this before the war started. As MD says, there was plenty of worldwide precedent for it. As it was, he couldn't even get it done in the middle of the war when support for it, theoretically, should've been highest.
I STRONGLY recommed you all read a book called "Forced into Glory, Abaraham Lincolns White Dream" written by reknown Historian Leronne Bennet Jr. To summarize this book as short as posible, there was never supposed to be a Black America. Lincoln freed the slaves not to make them citizens or to gave them any type of rights or eqaualities, but instead to send them all back to africa as part of a government plan that failed. The United States was going through a transition period moving from forced labor to industrialization. Now that Govt Scientist had the technology to produce machines, slavery was no longer a requirement. These new machines could do ten times the work of slaves, in a fraction of the time, for profits that were purely astronomical. Uncle Sam wanted to uindustralize the entire nation, thus making slavery obsolete (thus making african america obsolete). With no further reason to keep slaves around, the Govt went back to Africa and bought a piece of land from the Nigerians that they named Liberia. It is the ONLY foreign nation in the world that has a capital named after an American President.(Monrovia, which is named after our Fifth President James Monroe). This country was completely built by entirely by the United States, and was supposed to serve as a "dumping ground" for all the slaves that were no longer needed. Uncle Sam wanted the south to embrace this plan, but the south feared bankrupcy thinking that these machines would be too expensive to maintain and would not be as reliable as the system that they were so accustomed to. When they heard that the Govt was going to free the slaves anyway, send them back home and give them their own nation, the south decided that it too would leave the union and start their own nation as well. Eleven states decided to try and leave the union and take part in what would become the Confederacy. The US would not stand for this and this is eventually what led to the Civil War. The US main objective was not to assist the slaves (as many people are led to believe), but instead to keep the United States intact...period! After the war was over, the Govt found itself facing three main issues: 1) Militarily occupying the south so that there would be no further rebelions (Glory be I do declare, the South will rise again) 2) Financing the Reconstruction era so that everthing that was destroyed in the war could be rebuilt 3) Gathering up reinforcements, money, and military support for the US Calvery out west to assist with the "roundup" of the Native Americans These three issues consumed so much of the Govts finances and manpower that the entire back to Africa plan was abandoned, Africa america was placed on the backburner (or left segregated from the rest of the more "civilized citizens" of america) until the Govt could "clean up this mess", and eventually was forgotten about "or marooned over here".... all the way up to the Civil Rights era of the 60's and 70's If you all want to read more into this, I HIGHLY recommed you all buy Leronne Bennnets book. It took him over seven years to gather up all the information in it, but for the $40 price tag, it is gold mine of infromation packed with practically every federal reference he could get his hands on. If "Honest Abe" had his way, there wouldn't be a sinlge black person left in America... none...not a single solitary one!
Are you thinking that you uncovered a secret? They also soon realized that most slaves had no real connection to Africa.
Govt scientist invented the cotton gin?? Please name some other machines that replaced the work of slaves.
Yes, it was, and it predated the Civil War by 40 years. The American Colonization Society started Liberia in 1822, and it was voluntary repatriation for free blacks back to Africa.
Thanks. Wasn't sure of the timing or the specifics. How, then, did Lincoln intend to "encourage" them all to leave?
Well, my understanding is limited, but I think it was more he expected them to want to leave than anything else. He certainly was in a position to enforce it. But he knew there were difficulties in its conception, and he didn't seem to want to force anyone to go that didn't want to go. But he certainly didn't seem to understand the disconnect. He also proposed a plan for removing blacks to Panama, but there was a corruption issue, and the local governments when they learned of the plans protested. Lincoln publicly backed the American Colonization Society in speeches, invited them to a meeting in the White House during the war, and recognized Liberia then - not being able to prior to that because he knew the Southern representatives wouldn't accept a black Ambassador.
Life in free states wasn't that bad for blacks. Many obtained education. Most of the back to Africa crusade was in the North. But it was not free passage.
