Flashback: Abe Lincoln Wanted to Spend 1% of the Entire Federal Budget to Remove Blacks From America

Flashback. Historian Phillip Magness reports:

Abraham Lincoln’s attempts to colonize the freedmen abroad during the Civil War failed for a number of reasons, including diplomatic difficulties with foreign countries, the general unpopularity of the idea within the black community, and even internal dissent and subversion from his own cabinet. After four years and multiple attempts, no more than about 500 African-Americans relocated abroad, most of them to the ill-fated Ile a Vache colony off the coast of Haiti that required rescue by the government in 1864.

Despite the lack of willing participants, Lincoln initiated colonization with significantly larger plans in mind. In 1862 he obtained congressional approval of $600,000 in colonization funding, $100,000 of which was dedicated to the District of Columbia. Though small by modern standards, this figure would have amounted to almost 1% of the entire federal government’s budget by pre-Civil War standards.

No word yet from Steven Spielberg on this story.. Does Steven Spielberg hope you don't read this book ?