5 Shocking Things You Were Never Taught About Abraham Lincoln
3. He Wanted To Colonize Black People
As I have already noted, Abraham Lincoln was a strong supporter of the American Colonization Society which sought to ship all of the Negroes of the United States to other lands, such as Russia or Haiti or Panama. On October 16, 1854 he said at a speech in Illinois: My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,to their own native land. But a moments reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible which proved a true statement when an attempt at shipping blacks to another land ended in an outbreak of smallpox and some deaths. In the first years of his Presidency he purchased land in order to send off societys apparent-filth, it would not succeed; nevertheless he continued his desire to see them gone.
As I have already noted, Abraham Lincoln was a strong supporter of the American Colonization Society which sought to ship all of the Negroes of the United States to other lands, such as Russia or Haiti or Panama. On October 16, 1854 he said at a speech in Illinois: My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,to their own native land. But a moments reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible which proved a true statement when an attempt at shipping blacks to another land ended in an outbreak of smallpox and some deaths. In the first years of his Presidency he purchased land in order to send off societys apparent-filth, it would not succeed; nevertheless he continued his desire to see them gone.