Abraham Lincoln is renowned for his stance on the emancipation of enslaved people in a period when America was sorely divided. At the same time, there was a little-known event that took place—one that left a stain on Lincoln’s legacy, and has apologists still trying to expunge it today.
This bookk tells the quiet but bloody history of Bernard Kock, a New Orleans entrepreneur with an ill-fated attempt at establishing a cotton plantation on Île-à-Vache, a deserted Haitian island, using formerly enslaved Americans. It also covers Lincoln’s involvement and support of Kock’s plan, as well as his pledge of $50 in government funding for each of the 453 colonists. With chapters on Lincoln’s encouragement of black deportation, the establishment of the plantation, the futile attempts at damage control and more, this text reveals an untold part of Lincoln’s history.

Bethesda, Maryland-based Boyce Thompson is the author of five non-fiction books and his work has appeared in Governing and The Washington Post.

Boyce Thompson
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages:
Bibliographic Info: ca. 30 photos, notes, index
Copyright Date: 2023
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8884-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4935-1
Imprint: McFarland