Abraham Lincoln told freed black slaves that they should found a colony in Latin America

He even made contact secretly with the British about making land available in what was then British Honduras, now Belize. In 1862, Lincoln urged a White House audience of free blacks to leave the United States and settle in Central America. He went on to say that those who envisioned a permanent life in the United States were being selfish and he promoted Central America as an ideal location because of the similarity of its climate to that of Africa.