It was proposed but never got any serious traction because the slavery situation in the US was radically different than in Britain. British slaves almost all l

It was proposed but never got any serious traction because the slavery situation in the US was radically different than in Britain. British slaves almost all lived in the colonies not in Britain itself. Freeing all the British slaves caused huge changes in the colonies but it didn't change things at home that much. Freeing all the slaves in the US is a much different ballgame because those former slaves are now citizens living right next door to you. The Southern States feared what would happen if the slaves they had been abusing for generations were freed and were given political power. In some southern states like Mississippi (if memory serves) the number of slaves was greater than the non slave population. That's just one of many big practical reasons, there are many more, but it also can't go unmentioned that the US had built up a racist cult around slavery by this time. It wasn't just that the economic system of the south was intrinsically linked with Slavery, it was that the culture was built around the degradation of an entire race of people. They didn't keep slaves just because of money, but because they honestly believed that subjugating them was "for their own good". You can't buy someone out of a belief like that. This is rigorously documented by the way. They believed they were morally right and didn't shy away from writing it down. All the declarations of Secession by the Confederate states contain similar language but the Texas one is particularly direct on this point: "We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable." https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/secession/2feb1861.html https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/secession/2feb1861.htm...