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Lincoln connected his name to a document that many of his adherents and later apologists would gladly forget: a contract with Bernard Kock, an ambitious and unscrupulous venturer, to use federal funds to remove some five thousand black men, women, and children from the United States to a small island off the coast of Haiti.

Interesting subject.

Kock was certainly ambitious, but it's unclear how unscrupulous he was. At the least, he put his own life on the line, going with his colonists (<500, not 5000) to Haiti. It should be noted that all colonists were volunteers, and that Kock got stiffed by his investors, who did not forward supplies as agreed.

Here's a link to the story.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=69893

An interesting account by one of Kock's descendants.

http://thompsongenealogy.com/2011/12/bernard-kock-colonized-cow-island-with-freed-slaves/

Lincoln's proclamation rescinding his agreement with Kock.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=69893

It's unclear to me why this story should be considered discreditable to Lincoln. It's usually coupled with implication that colonists were deported, rather than volunteers, which is flatly untrue.

While colonization projects failed, that doesn't mean they were inherently wrong or evil.

If one research's on, you will find that Abe Lincoln while in the senate entertained colonization of the black folks back to Africa and the Caribbean.

Ol Abe was among those in a movement for colonization in part on the belief that the blacks would not assimilate into the society.

These are not my words, they are that of those who lived it before, during and after the Civil War.

My GG Grandparents on two sides of the family owned plantations. One in Elora TN, the other in LA.

Stories I heard as a child were of mammys takin care of the children. They'd sing to them before bedtime...they were a part of the family. When the war of Northern aggression ended, the black folk did not want to leave their home, which happened to be the plantation.

This is where they lived, worked, raised their children. Slavery was a black eye on this nation, wrong to the core. I must say, I never ever heard of any stories of blacks being abused on these family plantations. Not one.

We must look at all the facts, not just the facts that give us warm fuzzies about how the North went to war to free the slave from the evil Southern plantation owners.

African natives were initially sold into slavery by....oh my gosh, African natives. One tribe or another would concur in battle, they'd put into slavery those men from the other tribe that were useful to their purposes. The rest, they sold into slavery to the white man. These ARE the facts.

Black men were just as guilty of slavery as the white man, only on a different continent. Black Africans were the original owner/sellers of Black Africans. At that point, in an odd way, the slaves were very lucky to still be alive and walking. Often times when one tribe defeated another, the losing side would be decimated.

This doesn't excuse slavery in America by no means, but what it does is lay out the truth. It is time to end this attack on Southern pride, Southern way of life and Southern history.

The race baiters have gone too far. By in large, the black communities problems are caused primarily by the black community. It is time for blacks to stand up and take responsibility and stop blaming everyone else for their failures.

It's always easier to blame someone else that to pull up your boot straps and get on about the job of fixin the issues.