Abraham Lincoln Not a True Hero
Abraham Lincoln’s ideas about slavery, race, and the future of Black Americans were deeply tied to the concept of colonization. Colonization meant resettling freed African Americans outside the United States, most often in Liberia on Africa’s west coast or in places like Central America. This idea was not unique to Lincoln; it had been promoted by the American Colonization Society since the early 1800s, and even some free Black leaders initially considered it. Yet when Lincoln became president in 1861, he made colonization part of his policy discussions, especially in the early years of the Civil War.
In August 1862, Lincoln invited a group of free Black leaders to the White House for what became a historic and controversial meeting. He directly told them: “You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races.” Lincoln expressed doubts about whether the two races could ever live together peacefully in the United States, saying, “This physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence.”
Lincoln continued by making his case for colonization: “It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated. You are freemen and we have given you the liberty; but what shall we do with you? The existence of the two races in the same country is a perpetual cause of injury to both. Colonization is the only way in which a permanent separation of the races can be accomplished.” These words reflected Lincoln’s deep uncertainty about how emancipation would reshape American society.
At that same meeting, Lincoln attempted to persuade the Black leaders to consider Central America as a potential colony. He told them: “There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh as it may be, for you free colored people to remain with us. We look to our condition. Owing to the existence of the two races on this continent, I need not tell you, in the present state of things, that it is a very grave matter. This is your country as much as it is mine, but there is something so unnatural in the existence of the two races together, and it is better for us both to be separated.”
Lincoln went so far as to describe colonization in moral terms, portraying it as an opportunity for African Americans to become leaders in new lands. “The place I am thinking about having for a colony,” he explained, “is in Central America. It is nearer to us than Liberia—not much more than one-fourth as far as Liberia—and within seven days’ run by steamers. The country is a very excellent one for any people, and with great natural resources and advantages, and especially because of the similarity of climate with your native land.” He suggested they could help bring “civilization” and progress to those regions.
The colonization idea was not just talk. In 1862, Lincoln persuaded Congress to approve funding for colonization projects. He told lawmakers that colonization could “benefit both races,” and in his annual message to Congress he declared: “I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I strongly favor colonization.” He hoped that gradual emancipation, coupled with colonization, could reduce white resistance to ending slavery.
But Lincoln’s colonization experiments met with failure. The most notorious was the attempt to settle freed people on Île à Vache, off the coast of Haiti, in 1863. Poor planning, corruption, and disease devastated the community. Survivors begged to be brought back to the United States, and the project collapsed. The failure of this venture weakened enthusiasm for colonization both in Congress and in the administration.
As the war continued, Lincoln’s tone about colonization began to change. By 1863 and 1864, with the Emancipation Proclamation in effect and Black men fighting bravely for the Union, Lincoln’s confidence in African Americans’ role in the nation grew. He spoke less often about colonization and more about loyalty, service, and the rights that should follow from them. By 1864 he admitted that Black soldiers had earned a permanent stake in American society, saying, “The colored population is the great available and yet unavailed of force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of fifty thousand armed and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once.”
In his last public speech on April 11, 1865, Lincoln openly endorsed limited Black suffrage for the first time. He said that he supported the right to vote for “the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.” This was a radical shift from the man who, just three years earlier, had urged Black leaders to consider leaving the country entirely.
This evolution shows that Lincoln’s thinking was not fixed. While colonization seemed to him a practical answer in 1862, by the end of his life he was beginning to imagine a biracial democracy. Though his vision was limited—he spoke only of the most educated and of veterans—he had taken the first step toward recognizing African Americans as permanent citizens of the United States.
Lincoln’s own words capture this transformation. From “It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated” in 1862, to “the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers” in 1865, we can see how the Civil War reshaped his understanding. Colonization, once a centerpiece of his racial policy, faded as emancipation, war, and Black participation in the struggle for freedom forced him to confront new realities.
The story of Lincoln and colonization is a reminder of both the limitations and the growth of his leadership. At first, he shared many of the prejudices of his time, believing Black and white Americans could not live together in peace. Yet by the end of his presidency, he had begun to speak of a future in which African Americans could claim their place in the republic they had helped save.
