Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
New World “Liberias”
On December 3, 1861, in his address to Congress, President Lincoln asked that steps be
taken for colonization of slaves liberated in the confiscation of property “used for in-
surrectionary purposes,” as they were now essentially wards of the state. “Steps should
be taken for colonization . . . at some place or places and climate congenial to them. It
might be well too, to consider whether free colored people already in the United States
could not, in so far as individuals may desire, be included in such colonization. . . . To
carry out the plan of colonization may involve the acquiring of territory and the ap-
propriation of money.” 71 Congress gave the executive the power to begin to explore
this state-sponsored colonization—in essence deportation of the emerging class of ex-
slaves. 72 Lincoln had, after all called for a “colony of freed Negroes in Central America
andprovincesinNuevoGrenada,”onthenortherncoastsofSouthAmerica,aplacenow
known as Panama. Lincoln was to support “New World Liberias” in five major public
addresses, including two State of the Union speeches, and in the preliminary Emancipa-
tion Proclamation. 73 Among vigorous advocates of this position was Washington news-
paper man and congressman Francis Blaire, Lincoln's informal adviser, founder of the
Republican Party, and major negotiator with the Confederacy. Blair had been in favor of
simply annexing Central America, arguing that “the door is now open in Central Amer-
ica to receive the enfranchised colored race born amongst us.” 74
It fell to William Seward, the secretary of state, to address this question in substantive
ways.Sewardwasnotfaintheartedwhenitcametoacquiringhugeexpansesofterritory:
he later purchased Alaska—some 1,500,000 square kilometers—from the Russians in
1867.
The ideologies of environment and race at the time suggested that tropical venues
would be the most appropriate places for the newly liberated black and mestizo popula-
tion to settle, and to this end in 1862Seward approached the ministries ofcountries with
tropical colonies—Britain, France, and Holland—about the feasibility of such immigra-
tion.Seward'snoteofinquiryindicatedthatmanyfreeblacksindeedwishedtoemigrate
if they were given certain guarantees by the United States and the nations to which they
would go. 75
The European powers were not happy about the prospect of a sudden onslaught into
their colonies of free blacks who would maintain their US citizenship. Partly this resist-
ance stemmed from generalized racist views of the intellectual and laboring qualities of
blacks, and as a rule, if migrants were to be had, white immigrants were preferred. The
other problem was that the relocation of large numbers of US citizens would enhance
the potential and pretexts for US incursions. The number of former slaves in the Un-
ited States was among the highest of any nation in the hemisphere, and most of the New
Worldcoloniesandyoungrepublicswerehavingenoughtroublewiththeirowndomest-
Search WWH ::




Custom Search