FEBRUARY 19, 1864:
Of all
the States of the Union, Massachusetts was well-known to be the center of
gravity of the Abolitionist Movement. President Lincoln, seeking a safe haven
for the millions of slaves ultimately to be emancipated, wrote to the Governor
of Massachusetts asking if the Bay State could set aside land --- in effect an
African-American Reservation --- for the freed people. This plan, like
Lincoln’s earlier suggestions for the colonization of Panama and a mass
emigration to Liberia, went nowhere.
