The Richmond Dispatch of February 9, 1865 reported about the peace conference and said:
Over topics of a kindly and pleasant character, a significant inquiry was made by Stephens how nearly the extension of the capitol was completed, and the expression of a desire to go to Washington to see. Mr. Seward told him of the condition of the work, and invited him to come and look at the capitol of the reunited Republic. The terms of peace were thus gradually approached. When fully reached on the rebel side, Stephens took the parole, and surpassed all his old exhibitions of persuasiveness, shrewdness, force, tact and courage, in putting the demands and the rights of the Confederacy. In the midst of them, and at the conclusion of one of his points, Mr. Lincoln swung forward on the lower hinge of his back and interrupted: "That reminds me of a story of a man in Illinois!" Stephens, Hunter and Campbell instantly jumped up in a roar of merriment.
The interruption caused by this characteristic outbreak, and the apt story which followed being through with, the rebel Vice President resumed, and pursued to the end of his statement of the rights of the Confederate States and the terms on which he thought they would be willing to stop the war. Recognition was the first of them. The proposition for an armistice was, of course, a logical sequence.
To the best of my knowledge there were no minutes taken during the Hampton Roads conference, so we’re going by individual recollections. Stephens implies concern only for the freed blacks. Lincoln’s story make it clear that the interest was for the white population. The Richmond story doesn’t say that the question of the fate of blacks or whites was even mentioned.