WI: Lincoln Removes African Americans to Central American Colony

What if during his term in office, President Abraham Lincoln made good on his promise to move all freed slaves and African Americans to a Central American colony after the Civil War?
 
What if during his term in office, President Abraham Lincoln made good on his promise to move all freed slaves and African Americans to a Central American colony after the Civil War?

I've never heard of this. In any case, I don't really see how he could have done so, since this would have required America having a colony in Central America in the first place, and the transport of 15% of the US population to an area without transportation infrastructure. It reminds me of the Nazi Madagascar plan, except possibly more ludicrous. Any attempt to move any significant portion of the black population of the US would end up being a second Trail of Tears.
 
.....Any attempt to move any significant portion of the black population of the US would end up being a second Trail of Tears.

I wouldn't think that would stop them in the slightest. The North was just, more so in some places, as racist as the South.
I think some of the reasoning was that the blacks took up too many jobs that poor whites could have done.
 
If I remember my Bruce Catton correctly, he floated the idea in 1862 to a deputation of Negroes, but got a firmly negative response. I've never heard that he "promised" (promised whom?) to do anything of the kind.

General Butler claimed that he raised the possibility (specifically Panama) as late as 1865, but specifically in respect of coloured soldiers, who might have been employed on building a canal there. He evidently was not considering the settlement of the entire Black population, or anywhere near it.
 
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One problem, altough small, was that United States hadn't any colony in Central America. Well, USA could always enforce some CA nation giving land or then there could be earlier separated Panama.

But shipping would be very impractical. It would be expensive and Americans would lose their cheap labour force. And it would cause much resistance. And what about they who helped Union during Civil War?
 
One problem, altough small, was that United States hadn't any colony in Central America. Well, USA could always enforce some CA nation giving land or then there could be earlier separated Panama.

But shipping would be very impractical. It would be expensive and Americans would lose their cheap labour force. And it would cause much resistance. And what about they who helped Union during Civil War?

I suspect those were just the ones Lincoln had in mind.

Blacks who had served in the Union Army might find life distinctly uncomfortable in a South still run (as it surely would be) by its white population. So Lincoln may well have seen sense in providing a "bolthole" for those who didn't fancy life in a White-ruled Dixie.
 
If Lincoln was going to go through with this why would he deport the Blacks to Central America when American already has a Pseudo-Colony in Africa already set up for Free Blacks;Liberia?
 
I've never heard of this. In any case, I don't really see how he could have done so, since this would have required America having a colony in Central America in the first place, and the transport of 15% of the US population to an area without transportation infrastructure. It reminds me of the Nazi Madagascar plan, except possibly more ludicrous. Any attempt to move any significant portion of the black population of the US would end up being a second Trail of Tears.

This. Except forget the humanitarian aspects. Financially its just a massive burden. And even the racists in the South would object to much of the labor force leaving.

Trail of Tears--50,000 people by land

Colonization of freed slaves--4,000,000 people by sea.
 
If Lincoln was going to go through with this why would he deport the Blacks to Central America when American already has a Pseudo-Colony in Africa already set up for Free Blacks;Liberia?

Liberia had been fully independent for 17 years by the the end of the ACW.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
About the closest to a Civil War-era colonization project

About the closest to a Civil War-era colonization project (as opposed to Liberia) that actually came into being (more or less) was Île à Vache in Haiti, and it was an abject failure.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/the-le-vache-from-hope-to-disaster/?_r=0

For obvious reasons, Americans - no matter their ethnic ancestry - had very little desire to leave, given the sweat and blood they'd poured into the country and the cause.

180,000 USCTs and their families, for example, had more than paid the price - including almost 37,000 fatalities on active duty.

Which is a figure worth considering; more USCTs (36,847) died in the Civil War than (for example) than were suffered among white troops recruited by any single state, other than New York (46,534). Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania all came close, as well, with 34,834, 35,475, and 33,183 fatal casualties, respectively.

Best,
 
I suspect those were just the ones Lincoln had in mind.

Blacks who had served in the Union Army might find life distinctly uncomfortable in a South still run (as it surely would be) by its white population. So Lincoln may well have seen sense in providing a "bolthole" for those who didn't fancy life in a White-ruled Dixie.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that one of Grant's ideas behind approving the annexation of Santo Domingo? A sort of bolthole for African Americans who might need to flee the South?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that one of Grant's ideas behind approving the annexation of Santo Domingo? A sort of bolthole for African Americans who might need to flee the South?

Grant indeed tried bought Santo Domingo but I don't know if it was meaning to be new homeland of Afro-Americans.
 
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