Amrbrose W. Thompson was a wealthy shipbuilder from Philadelphia. He acquired a large piece of land, the isthmus of Chiriqui, in the northern part of modern-day Panama. He thought it would make an ideal port because of its large lagoon and stocks of coal, so he offered to sell it to the United States Navy. However, in 1861, Chiriqui was brought to the attention of

President Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

as a possible site to colonize with freed black slaves. Funds were appropriated by Congress, an emigration agent was appointed, and, by late 1862, 13,700 freed slaves had signed up for the plan. Financial irregularities (Thompson and his partners were paying off their personal debt with federal funds allocated to the project) stopped the plan. Also, complaints from neighboring countries about the plan kept it stalled. Lincoln next considered Isle a Vache, off the west coast of

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

, as a place for colonization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Ambrose 19th-century American businesspeople American shipbuilders Year of birth missing Year of death missing