Summary

In February 1861, Jefferson Davis became president of the newly formed Confederate States of America. In April of that year, the American Civil War began. Many slaves ran away from their plantations to join the North and Lincoln requested funds to colonize the runaways back to Africa. This prompted William Lloyd Garrison to comment that Lincoln did not have "a drop of antislavery blood in his veins" (217). In the north, Republicans were finally able to pass numerous forms of antislavery legislation without opposition from the seceding southern states. The influx of free Black people in the North caused the colonization movement to gain popularity as racist northerners feared "Black people sprinting north, invading their communities" (218). Opposition to colonization from the Black population remained firm.

In 1862, Lincoln made it clear that his "paramount object in this struggle is to...