In 1860, the US census counted 3,953,762 people living as slaves in the country. Assuming each of those people's freedom could be bought for an average price of $800. That totals out to $3,163,009,600. The estimated total cost of the Civil War, not counting the ~700,000 men who died, and even more wounded and maimed for life, was $6,190,000,00
What did we gain?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_census https://www.measuringworth.com/slavery.php https://civilwarhome.com/warcosts.htm
We should have shipped all the slaves back. That was the country's first "amnesty" error.
Back to what? Slaves who came to the Americas were as good as dead in the lands that they came from. Lincoln would have had to purchase land for them to go back too (and they thought about that), but that would have been another debacle in itself. Ironically, the death of Lincoln actually made the situation worse.... again.
The point I'm trying to make here is that it's better to work within the confines of the legal process, than to do something extreme.
Except we literally tried doing this. And Lincoln always intended to do this.
We did purchase land in Africa. We did send freed slaves back there pre-Civil War, and gave them land. You know what they did? The freed slaves who got there began enslaving the local population.
That land is what's now known as the country of Liberia.
It was more of a scam to get freed people out of the US.
https://www.history.com/news/slavery-american-colonization-society-liberia
Academia and the History channel would never lie to you.