Editing Reconstruction era (section)

===Colonization===
In August 1862, Lincoln met with African American leaders and urged them to colonize some place in [[Central America]]. Lincoln planned to free the Southern slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation and he was concerned that freedmen would not be well treated in the United States by Whites in both the North and South. Although Lincoln gave assurances that the United States government would support and protect any colonies that were established for former slaves, the leaders declined the offer of colonization. Many free Blacks had been opposed to colonization plans in the past because they wanted to remain in the United States. Lincoln persisted in his colonization plan in the belief that emancipation and colonization were both part of the same program. By April 1863, Lincoln was successful in sending Black colonists to [[Haiti]] as well as 453 to [[Chiriquí Province|Chiriqui]] in Central America; however, none of the colonies were able to remain self-sufficient. [[Frederick Douglass]], a prominent 19th-century American [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] activist, criticized Lincoln by stating that he was "showing all his inconsistencies, his pride of race and blood, his contempt for Negroes and his canting hypocrisy". African Americans, according to Douglass, wanted citizenship and civil rights rather than colonies. Historians are unsure if Lincoln gave up on the idea of African American colonization at the end of 1863 or if he actually planned to continue this policy up until 1865.<ref name="Williams 2006 pp. 54–59"/>{{sfnp|Guelzo|1999|pp=[https://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnre00guel/page/333 333–335]}}<ref name="Catton 1963 pp. 365–367">{{Cite book |last=Catton |first=Bruce |title=Terrible Swift Sword |publisher=Doubleday |year=1963 |isbn=9780307833068 |series=The Centennial History of the Civil War |volume=2 |location=New York |pages=365–367, 461–468 |oclc=2158762}}</ref>