On August 14, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln met with a group of Black leaders at the White House. This meeting was part of his ongoing exploration of how to address slavery and its impact on the Union during the Civil War.

The group, which included prominent Black figures such as Frederick Douglass, was part of a broader dialogue about emancipation and the future of African Americans. This particular gathering followed a series of proposals by Lincoln to colonize freed Black people in Africa, as he believed that colonization might be a solution to racial issues in the U.S. at the time.

During the meeting, Lincoln spoke to the group about his views on colonization and suggested that it might be a way to deal with racial tensions in America. He also expressed the challenges of integrating formerly enslaved people into American society, given the prevailing racist attitudes and the South’s rebellion against the Union.

The meeting was a significant moment in Lincoln’s evolving views on slavery, race, and emancipation, as he would later issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which shifted the Union’s war aims to include the abolition of slavery.