Linconia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linconia was the name of a proposed Central American colony suggested by Republican United States Senator Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas in 1862, after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln asked the Senator and United States Secretary of the Interior Caleb Smith to work on a plan to resettle freed African Americans from the United States.[1]
Since his early political career, Abraham Lincoln had supported the American Colonization Society, a controversial group whose goal was the removal of free blacks from the United States. It, and its state affiliates, starting in the 1820s began settlements in West Africa that would eventually unite to form Liberia.[2] Similarly to Linconia, the name of Liberia's capital Monrovia was derived from the name of the fifth President of the United States James Monroe.[3]
Lincoln desired to return former slaves to Africa or other tropical regions, with their consent and the accord of the authorities of the country where they were to be settled.[4] He repeated his support for colonization numerous times, including during the American Civil War.[1]
