colonization

A Phony ‘Phocion’: Alexander Hamilton and the election of 1796

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On October 14, 1796 the Philadelphia-based Gazette of the United States newspaper ran the first of 25 “letters” that would forever change the nature of presidential campaigns. Bearing the pseudonym of the ancient Athenian orator ‘Phocion,’ the letters presented a systematic and, at times, bitterly personal argument against Thomas Jefferson’s candidacy for President of the United States. Over […]

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Guelzo/Lincoln/Colonization challenge: can you spot the problem?

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Historian Allen C. Guelzo, with whom I have tangled repeatedly on the subject of Abraham Lincoln and colonization, inserted another jab at my 2011 book Colonization after Emancipation (co-authored with Sebastian Page) in the latest issue of the American Historical Review. This one appears as a comment in his review of Robert E. May’s book Slavery, Race, and Conquest in the American

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The American System and the Political Economy of Colonization

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My new article in the Journal of the History of Economic Thought explores the intersection between 19th century economic theory and the colonization movement, including its substantial effect on the antislavery views of Abraham Lincoln. Abstract: “From 1816 through to the end of the Civil War, the colonization of emancipated slaves in Africa and the

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Thaddeus Stevens, Colonization, and the 13th Amendment

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Last Saturday marked the 150th anniversary of the day the 13th Amendment passed the House of Representatives, securing its submission to the states for ratification. This momentous event – marking the abolition of slavery in the United States – has received increased attention in light of the Civil War sesquicentennial, as well as its 2012 dramatization

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Lincoln & Colonization: understanding the documents issue

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Contrary to the recent insinuations otherwise, the colonization efforts Abraham Lincoln are reasonably well documented. We know the approximate dates of most of his active colonization experiments during the Civil War years. We have a rough time frame for several dozen recollected conversations on the topic that were recorded by Lincoln’s contemporaries. And we have

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A brief guide to colonization documents omitted from the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln

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For more than half a century the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler, has been the standard go-to volume for a compendium of known documents authored by Abraham Lincoln. As might be expected with any collection that attempts to aggregate the writings of a prolific political figure, many documents were overlooked

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