New Book on Lincoln and Colonization--was he a white supremacist?

[Anarchist420]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lincoln_colonization
The article makes a grave error in saying that Washington could've dealt with the slavery issue. Washington, as a nationalist, was no better with the concept of slavery than Lincoln. After all, it was Washington who pushed for national protection of slavery and he was against the only good way to deal with slavery--that is, keeping the Articles of Confederation.

In any event, I hope this book becomes more than a best-seller. Although credit should really be given to Tom DiLorenzo, I think that it has a better chance of unmasking Lincoln than Lincoln Unmasked, because Tom DiLorenzo's works are just too good for most people to accept.

Was colonization racist in your opinion? IMO, it was if it had been forced.

 

[Tom]

Do you read the article you present ?

"Unlike some others, Lincoln always promoted a voluntary colonization, rather than forcing blacks to leave."

Lincoln's interest in colonization appears to stem from a belief that free blacks would not be well tolerated in the States, a fact born out by the subsequent 100 years of racial injustice.

I think Lincoln struggled to find a way to improve the lot of slaves, and in that struggle looked at many options and ideas.

 

[RU482]

think for a minute how different the country would be if they had been successful in creating a colony for all former slaves, outside of the borders of the US. It's like the thought exercises of "what if the south had won...or what if the Germans had won WWII". strange

 

[Aegeon]

Obviously the title of this thread is stupid.

At worst you can say that Lincoln had racial views which would be considered racist today, but certainly opposed the institution of slavery. His views in general certainly didn't conform with those of modern white supremacists who believe in all sorts of things Lincoln clearly did not. (As noted a key point was that Lincoln's colonization policy would have been voluntary.)

Your comment regarding the Articles of Confederation is as usual on this subject simply stupid. The reality is getting rid of slavery (at the national level) at the time was clearly not politically possible while keeping the nation together during that early period of the nation's founding. Even New York had a significant slave population during the period, and finally implemented a gradual emancipation policy in 1799 with slavery basically completely ending there in 1827.

While you can criticize Washington for being a slave holder to a certain degree, he clearly didn't have any real opportunity to actually change things politically much while he was in office. His main failing would be that especially after he was out of office could have potentially used his status and reputation to be more vocally critical of the institution of slavery.

Jefferson can certainly be subjected to greater criticism for failing to at least try to block slavery in the new territory acquired with the Louisiana Purchase. (For the record he had advocated such a policy regarding new territories earlier in his political life, and I am still actually trying to get a better personal feel for his motivations in not doing so at this later date.)

Your actual apparent effort to bash Lincoln in general is pretty dumb though, especially given that Lincoln made it clear that in general he favored giving everyone a fair shot in life to succeed. (He had concerns about blacks mixing in general with whites to a great degree, but presumably assumed colonies elsewhere would give blacks the chance to be successful just like western settlers in the US.)

 

[Capt Caveman]

Reported - Lock and Ban

 

[wuliheron]

Does somebody pay him to post all this trash?

 

[classy]

I don't know this poster's history, but this is not really news. It has always been known Lincoln didn't fight the war to end slavery, he fought the war mainly for the same age old reason known to the history of man, money. So it should be of no surprise he believed in colonization. Even today despite the over whelming evidence races can and do live in harmony together, many will point to the clashes as being evidence that races shouldn't be together, even those clashes are the exception, rather than the norm. Lincoln never believed a Negro was equal to a white person. Ironically Robert E Lee appeared to have more respect of blacks than Lincoln, but history has a way of telling facts, but many times leaving out the truth.

 

[Arglebargle]

In an interesting historical sidebar, Washington set up his will so that all his slaves would be freed at his death, despite the wishes of his wife and her wealthy Virginia family. Jefferson ended up selling lots of his family's slaves down the river.

As for Lincoln, his personal views aside, he seemed to prefer giving people an equal chance.

 

[Infohawk]

Reported - Lock and Ban

Unfortunately he's a skilled troll. Doesn't quite go over the top enough to get himself in trouble but does enough to harm the forum with garbage.

 

[Steeplerot]

How is this Lincoln's thing? The whole country of Liberia in Africa was founded by our former northern slaves in the 1820's Monrovia is named after President Monroe, far before Lincoln.

The history of Liberia is unique among African nations because of its relationship with the United States. It is one of only two countries in sub-Sahara Africa, along with Ethiopia, without roots in the European Scramble for Africa. It was founded and colonized by freed American slaves with the help of a private organization called the American Colonization Society in 1821-1822, on the premise that former American slaves would have greater freedom and equality there.
Slaves freed from slave ships were also sent there instead of being repatriated to their countries of origin. These colonists formed an elite group in Liberian society, and, in 1847, they founded the Republic of Liberia, establishing a government modeled on that of the United States, naming Monrovia, their capital city, after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States and a prominent supporter of the colonization.

You really should read some actual history instead of crackerjack box conspiracies. Reality of life is far more interesting imo.

I don't even think most Americans realize we have a sister country founded from our constitution in Africa from the early days of USA. It's still there. (it is obviously a very forgotten sad place now -shameful)

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

There's always the tendency to apply moral hindsight while luxuriously basking in the light of contextual ignorance. I can cite what others did, but using modern standards is pointless. In a few dered years others will do the same to us based on standards we can't possibly imagine.

 

[Craig234]

(About Washington freeing his slaves)

I don't think it was all that great to be even a 'freed' slave in 1800 United States.

There was going to be incredible racism, a lack of education, it wasn't like he could just go work side by side with whites much, probably everyone looking at them as a runaway...

It'd be interesting to hear how his freed slaves functioned.