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LITR 4328 American Renaissance Research Posts 2015 (research post assignment) Research Post 2 |
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Heidi Kreeger
Colonization is the Answer?
While researching Abraham Lincoln and his view on abolitionism, I came
across an interesting fact that he, along with his political heroes Henry Clay
and Thomas Jefferson, believed that colonization could resolve issues around
slavery. Most were of the opinion that Africa or central America was the right
choice, but they often spoken in general terms as well about the “distant shore”
they would take emancipated slaves to.
I originally stumbled on this information on the History Channel website,
and it reports that for the majority of his political career, Lincoln believed
that colonization was the right choice. After he gave the Emancipation
Proclamation, he never mentioned it publicly again, however, according to the
website:
“Lincoln
first publicly advocated for colonization in 1852, and in 1854 said that his
first instinct would be “to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia…Nearly
a decade later, even as he edited the draft of the preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation in August of 1862, Lincoln hosted a delegation of freed slaves at
the White House in the hopes of getting their support on a plan for colonization
in Central America. Given the “differences” between the two races and the
hostile attitudes of whites towards blacks, Lincoln argued, it would be “better
for us both, therefore, to be separated.”
It
seems that until the moment when he gave the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln
was set on the idea of colonization. It is hard in the modern day to fathom why
this would seem the logical choice but there was a lot of fear during this time
about emancipated slaves revolting, or otherwise destroying the nation from
within.
The fact that Thomas Jefferson held this viewpoint as well is also a
tough pill to swallow. Here again is a man that we credit with so many great
accomplishments, and acknowledge that he played a huge part in shaping the
beginnings of our country. This demonstrates just how deeply entrenched slavery
was in our country’s founding. In a letter to Edward Coles in 1814, Jefferson
expressed his viewpoint that:
“I
have seen no proposition so expedient on the whole, as that as emancipation of
those born after a given day, and of their education and expatriation after a
given age. This would give time for a gradual extinction of that species of
labour & substitution of another, and lessen the severity of the shock which an
operation so fundamental cannot fail to produce… In the mean time they are pests
in society by their idleness, and the depredations to which this leads them.
Their amalgamation with the other color produces a degradation to which no lover
of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently
consent.”
Essentially Jefferson proposes that slowly “weeding” emancipated slaves out of
the country would allow the nation the opportunity to adjust to a new way of
operating. He fears that they will be directionless and helpless, which combined
with the intermingling of races will create an opportunity for the country’s
foundations to be compromised. This must have been a fear very common to the
average American citizen, particularly in the south.
According to The Journal of Negro History, even the Union Humane Society,
an anti-slavery organization, supported colonization as the best choice. The way
in which the journal explains the rationale behind colonization is that
“They
[emancipated slaves] infest the suburbs of the towns and cities, where they
become the depositories of stolen goods, and, schooled by necessity, elude the
vigilance of our defective police.’ Thus a Virginia slaveholder saw in Negro
colonization a means to relieve the State of a dangerous population, to increase
the value of slave property and to make possible manumission by that class of
slaveholders in which he put himself”.
Here,
they assert much the same thing as Jefferson, that freed individuals will have
no place to go and no purpose and therefore will all become degenerates and
liabilities to the public.
Such opinions raise the question in my mind of how the emancipated slaves felt
at this moment. I found my answers in a document known as the
“The
Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the
United States” by
Martin R. Delany Brotz. Brotz was born a free man and worked alongside Frederick
Douglass; he was an abolitionist, black nationalist and one of the first three
black people admitted into Harvard Medical School. As such, I find him qualified
to speak on how most black people felt about colonization. Within the text, he
asserts that:
“In
our own country, the United States, there are three
million five hundred thousand slaves; and
we, the nominally free colored people are six
hundred thousand in number… We
love our country, dearly love her, but she doesn’t love us– she despises us, and
bids us begone, driving us from her embraces; but we shall not go where she
desires us; but when we do go, whatever love we have for her, we shall love the
country none the less that receives us as her adopted children.”
There is a horrible sadness that permeates throughout the entire text. He points
out that while “colored” people make up the majority of the world’s population,
they are made to serve white men wherever they go. He seems to protest and to
assert that the United States is the home where they belong, but then keeps hope
alive that they will find acceptance and success within a new country.
I have never been a huge fan of history, but the more I delve into the
realities of what happened, and not only the surface story that we are given in
school textbooks, the more that I appreciate the value of studying our history
as a country. It seems relevant to me even today, as race relations are still a
hot button topic in the media. The discussion may have changed slightly –
actually slavery is no longer an issue but there are arguments as to whether or
not sufficient reparations have been made, and whether or not racial tension
still exists at all. As a society we can only benefit from learning about where
we have come from and the issues that have shaped us.
Sources:
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http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/letter-to-edward-coles/
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http://www.history.com/news/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-lincoln-slavery-and-emancipation
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