Suppose Union forces sold some of the slaves? Officially, of course, they would never do such a thing but what if opportunists among them seized their chance to get rich by smuggling out as many as they could?
The Union controlled large portions of the coast such as Port Royal, S.C., for large parts of the war. Perhaps if slaves escaped and fled there to participate in the redistribution of land, unscrupulous profiteers among the Northern soldiers smuggled them out to South America or the Caribbean.
Perhaps opportunists among Sherman's men had a deal to meet some South American slave smugglers when they reached the coast?
Perhaps, after the war, when freedmen were given coastal land between Florida and South Carolina, they were smuggled out and replaced by Africans who paid to take their place? They say traces of African languages live on in some of the coastal islands in these areas. Can it be because they were repopulated by Africans who paid Union Army profiteers to smuggle them into the United States?
Probably no African who had a family, a farm or a trade, and a stable community probably would have wanted to come but maybe, like seafaring Vikings, sometimes there were too many heirs for the land, and European colonizers were definitely encroaching on African lands at the time. In fact, maybe some of the Underground Railroad originated in Africa? They must have known the US was wealthy and their descendants are wealthier than they would have been in Africa, for the most part.
Maybe when President Johnson cancelled Sherman's order #15 to give freedmen 40 acres (but not a mule) he was realizing they hadn't exercised enough oversight over Union forces, and the people now occupying former slaveholders' lands were not the former slaves and were not owed anything by the United States?
It is possible that the people here now are not descended from slaves and the actual slaves' intelligence had been bred down. Maybe it was not too difficult to take advantage of them. Maybe because of this fact, many turned a blind eye to their exportation. Maybe it was thought they'd be burdensome to care for.
The Union controlled large portions of the coast such as Port Royal, S.C., for large parts of the war. Perhaps if slaves escaped and fled there to participate in the redistribution of land, unscrupulous profiteers among the Northern soldiers smuggled them out to South America or the Caribbean.
Perhaps opportunists among Sherman's men had a deal to meet some South American slave smugglers when they reached the coast?
Perhaps, after the war, when freedmen were given coastal land between Florida and South Carolina, they were smuggled out and replaced by Africans who paid to take their place? They say traces of African languages live on in some of the coastal islands in these areas. Can it be because they were repopulated by Africans who paid Union Army profiteers to smuggle them into the United States?
Probably no African who had a family, a farm or a trade, and a stable community probably would have wanted to come but maybe, like seafaring Vikings, sometimes there were too many heirs for the land, and European colonizers were definitely encroaching on African lands at the time. In fact, maybe some of the Underground Railroad originated in Africa? They must have known the US was wealthy and their descendants are wealthier than they would have been in Africa, for the most part.
Maybe when President Johnson cancelled Sherman's order #15 to give freedmen 40 acres (but not a mule) he was realizing they hadn't exercised enough oversight over Union forces, and the people now occupying former slaveholders' lands were not the former slaves and were not owed anything by the United States?
It is possible that the people here now are not descended from slaves and the actual slaves' intelligence had been bred down. Maybe it was not too difficult to take advantage of them. Maybe because of this fact, many turned a blind eye to their exportation. Maybe it was thought they'd be burdensome to care for.
