[Vlad The Inhaler]

He [Lincoln] left it legal to own black slaves in the northern states.

Of whom there were so few, and the practice was so socially unacceptable that it was dying out anyway.

That would be small comfort to the blacks in the northern states who remained in slavery.

And there were more than just a few although far, far less than in the south.

[BroJoeK]

JimRed: "Of whom there were so few, and the practice was so socially unacceptable that it was dying out anyway.
That would be small comfort to the blacks in the northern states who remained in slavery."

Vlad The Inhaler: "And there were more than just a few although far, far less than in the south."

In fact, by 1860 there were just a handful of slaves in one Northern state, New Jersey -- 18.

In 1790 there were 40,000 Northern slaves and 650,000 Southern slaves.
By 1860 there were 18 Northern slaves and 4 million Southern slaves.