[uncbob]

Wonder if the South would have freed the slaves if the North would have taken half of them

[DoodleDawg]

Wonder if the South would have freed the slaves if the North would have taken half of them

Then who would do the work?

[BroJoeK]

uncbob: "Wonder if the South would have freed the slaves if the North would have taken half of them."

Slavery was far to important to the Deep South's cotton economy to free the slaves who made it happen, compensated or otherwise.
Beginning with Thomas Jefferson, plans were drawn up for compensated emancipation, always rejected by slave-holders themselves.

Remember, in 1860 there were about 4 million African Americans, 400,000 of whom were freedmen.
Of those 400,000 freed, about half lived in the North the other half in slave-states, the vast majority in Maryland, Virginia & North Carolina.