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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC03973 |
| From Archive Folder | Unassociated Civil War Documents 1864 |
| Title | Abraham Lincoln to Edwin M. Stanton regarding transport to return black colonists from Haiti |
| Date | 1 February 1864 |
| Author | Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Content Description | Transport to return black colonists from Haiti. The colonists were freed slaves. In 1862, 450 African Americans were recruited to settle on the Island of Vache, off the coast of present-day Haiti. Small pox and mismanagement by a white government-appointed manager contributed to the colony's failure. The transport ship dispatched by President Lincoln picked up only 368 survivors. |
| Subjects | President Lincoln's Cabinet African American History Transportation Caribbean Slavery Refugees |
| People | Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) Stanton, E. M. (Edwin McMasters) (1814-1869) |
| Place written | Washington, D.C. |
| Theme | African Americans; Government & Politics; Health & Medicine; Slavery & Abolition |
| Sub-collection | Papers and Images of the American Civil War |
| Additional Information | For much of his political career, Lincoln, like his political idol Henry Clay, was an advocate of colonization, based on his belief that "the great mass of white people" would refuse to extend equal rights to African Americans. This assumption and prediction, Lincoln believed, "whether well or ill-founded, cannot be safely disregarded." In 1862, the President met with a group of African Americans at the White House (no previous President had dreamed of inviting blacks to the White House), and, in what was perhaps the lowest point of his presidency, seemed to blame blacks for the Civil War and predicted that they would have to migrate overseas. Lincoln said "your race are suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on any people...but on this broad continent, not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours." Frederick Douglass condemned the President's remarks. "No sincere wish to improve the condition of the oppressed has dictated" his words, Douglass wrote. " It expresses merely the desire to get rid of them, and reminds one of the politeness with which a man might try to bow out of his house some troublesome creditor or the witness of some old guilt." In that year, 450 African Americans were recruited to settle on the Island of Vache, off the coast of present-day Haiti. Small pox and mismanagement by a white government-appointed manager contributed to the colony's failure. The transport ship dispatched by President Lincoln picked up only 368 survivors. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945 |
| Transcript | Show/hide |