The skanner., February 23, 2011, Page 27, Image 27

T He L osT H isTory
Little known: Lincoln’s help in Black Exodus
By dr. Frank smith, special to The
Skanner News from TriceedneyWire
D
id you know that when President
Lincoln issued the 13th Amendment
which abolished slavery, it included
a proposal to pay loyal slave owners for
their slaves and a proposal to provide feder-
al help for newly freed Blacks wishing to
leave the U.S.?
The Lincoln proposal to Congress stated
as follows: “Every state, wherein slavery
now exists, which shall abolish the same
therein, at any time, or times, before the
first day of January, in the year of our Lord
one thousand and nine hundred (1900) shall
receive compensation from the United
States——for each slave shown to exist as
stated in Article I.”
In Article II of the 13th amendment, he
stated that slave owners “who shall not have
been disloyal, shall be compensated for
their slaves. And, Article III stated,
“Congress may appropriate money, and oth-
erwise provide for the colonizing of free
colored persons, with their consent, at any
place or places, without the United States.”
So there you have it, President Lincoln
trying for two years to put down the rebel-
lion, win the Civil War and keep America
united under one flag without touching the
issue of slavery at all. At the end of two
years, he now realizes that he needs the help
of the freed enslaved persons to set in sham-
bles the economy of the South and provide
additional soldiers in order to complete his
noble objective of saving the Union.
Lincoln first issues the Emancipation
Proclamation as a fit and just military
necessity to accomplish both objectives of
ending slavery and saving the nation.
Lincoln knows however that slavery is all
wrapped up in the Constitution and validat-
ed in a court decision called the Dred Scott
case which stated that the founding fathers
never intended that Blacks - neither slave
nor free - be citizens of the U.S. So Lincoln
started to work the Congress to get the 13th
amendment passed and - with his message
to congress - lay the groundwork for com-
pensating loyal slave holders. He offered no
compensation for the enslaved who had
been forced to work for free for more than
two hundred years building the economic
groundwork for the rich and prosperous
economy that we know today.
Congress rejected the compensation idea
saying it would bankrupt the country and
that gradual emancipation would prolong
slavery for another 37 years till the year
1900. A few Blacks took a look see at the
proposed colonization idea, rejected it and
claimed their stake in the United States of
America. In 1870, Congress would then go
on to pass the 14th Amendment making
Blacks born in America citizens and requir-
ing states to accord them “equal protection
under the law”. The 15th amendment armed
Black men with the right to vote that was
quickly taken away by state laws and the
wrath of the KKK.
It would take almost a hundred years of
litigation, marches, deaths and frustration to
erase the legal aspects of White supremacy.
It would take several civil rights acts and a
1965 voting rights act that abolished the
poll tax and literacy test and sent federal
registrars into the former confederate states
enabling Blacks to once again register to
vote, run for sheriff, mayor, congress and
serve on juries. It all began with Black sol-
diers in the Civil War and in 2008, Black
voters would join with well-meaning
Whites to elect Barack Obama the 44th
President of the United States.
At the urging of the Association for the
Study of African American Life and History
(ASALH), President Barack Obama issued
a National African American History
Month, proclaiming stating, “This year’s
theme ‘African Americans and the Civil
War’ invites us to reflect on 150 years since
the start of the Civil War and on the patriots
of a young country who fought for the
promises of justice and equality laid out by
our forbearers”. For the full text, go to
www.afroamcivilwar.org.
April 12, 2011 will mark the 150th
Anniversary of the firing on Ft. Sumter and
the start of the American Civil War. The
African American Civil War Memorial
Foundation will commemorate the begin-
ning Civil War with celebrities reading from
Civil War period newspapers, speeches, and
other documents announcing the coming of
the war and its profound effect on the end-
ing of slavery in America. We will also have
celebrities read from selected press respons-
es to the election of President Lincoln and
the anti- slavery platform of the Republican
party of 1860.
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February 23, 2011 Black History edition The Portland Skanner Page 11