Forty acres and a mule facts for kids
Forty acres and a mule was a famous idea during the American Civil War. It was part of an order given by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865. This order, called Special Field Orders No. 15, aimed to give land to some families who had just been freed from slavery. Each family could get a plot of land up to 40 acres (about 16 hectares). Later, Sherman also told the army to lend mules to help with farming.
Many freed people believed they had a right to own the land they had been forced to work on as slaves. They were very excited to control their own property. However, after President Abraham Lincoln died, the new president, Andrew Johnson, tried to stop Sherman's order and similar plans.
Some land was given out by the military during and shortly after the war. But during the Reconstruction era, the government mostly focused on black people working for wages, not owning land. Almost all the land given out during the war was returned to its former white owners. Still, some black communities managed to keep their land. Others got new land by homesteading (claiming public land). Black land ownership grew a lot in Mississippi during the 1800s, especially in low-lying areas near rivers. Most black people bought land privately. Black land ownership reached its highest point in 1910, with about 15 million acres (6 million hectares), before money problems caused many to lose their property.
A study in 2020 compared what happened in the Cherokee Nation to what happened in the former Confederate states. The Cherokee Nation successfully gave free land to former slaves. The study found that black former slaves in the Cherokee Nation became more successful over the next few decades. They had less racial inequality, higher incomes, better reading skills, and more children attending school.
Contents
Why Land Was Important
For many generations, people who were enslaved in the United States could not own land. Legally, slaves couldn't own anything. When slavery ended, many freed people expected to own the land they had worked on. Some people who wanted to end slavery had even told them this would happen.
African Americans faced harsh unfairness and were kept separate by laws that forced racial segregation. They were often seen as a threat to jobs and wages. Before the Civil War, most free black people lived in the North, where slavery had been ended. Some of them bought a lot of land there.
In the South, laws allowed states to force free black people to work, and sometimes even sell them back into slavery. Still, free Africans across the country worked in many different jobs. A small number owned and ran successful farms. Others moved to Canada or Nova Scotia.
White people had different ideas about how to treat freed people. Some thought the land freed people had worked for free should be taken from their former owners and given to them. Others wanted freed people to leave the U.S. because they didn't want different races mixing. Plans to send freed people to a "colony" started as early as 1801. The American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed in 1816 to send free African Americans to Africa, mostly to Liberia. But this was slow and expensive, and most African Americans didn't want to go. They felt they were Americans, not Africans.
Giving land to a whole group of people wasn't as strange in the 1700s and 1800s as it seems today. There was so much land that it was often given away free to anyone who would farm it. For example, Thomas Jefferson suggested giving 50 acres to any free man who didn't already have that much. Later, various Homestead Acts between 1862 and 1916 gave away 160 to 640 acres. Freed people usually couldn't get land through homesteading at first because they weren't citizens. This changed with the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which gave them citizenship, and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, which gave them the right to vote.
The War and Land
As the Union Army started taking over property in the South, Congress passed the Confiscation Act of 1861. This law allowed the military to take rebel property, including land and enslaved people. This law came about because many black refugees were gathering around the Union Army. These large groups of freed people caused problems for the army and needed to be managed.
Grand Contraband Camp
After the Southern states left the Union, the Union Army kept control of Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. Enslaved people who escaped rushed to this area, hoping for protection from the Confederate Army. General Benjamin Butler made an important decision on May 24, 1861. He refused to give escaped slaves back to Confederates who claimed to own them. Butler called the slaves "contraband of war" and let them stay with the Union Army.
By July 1861, there were 300 "contraband" slaves working for food at Fort Monroe. By the end of July, there were 900. Confederate soldiers burned the nearby town of Hampton, Virginia on August 7, 1861. But the "contraband" black people moved into the ruins. They built a makeshift town called the Grand Contraband Camp. Many worked for the Army, but their wages were not enough to greatly improve their homes. Conditions in the camp got worse, and groups from the North tried to help its 64,000 residents.
A plan in September 1862 would have moved many refugees to Massachusetts and other northern states. But this plan was not popular with politicians who didn't want black people moving North. They feared black workers would compete for jobs and there was general racial prejudice.
With support from generals, General Butler and Captain Wilder started local resettlement plans. They gave many black people in Hampton two acres of land and tools to work with. Other smaller camps were formed, including the Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island. Hampton became known as one of the war's first and biggest refugee camps, and it served as a model for other settlements.
Sea Islands Experiment
The Union Army took over the Sea Islands after the Battle of Port Royal in November 1861. This left many cotton plantations to the black farmers who had worked on them. The early freedom of the Sea Island black people, and the absence of their former white owners, raised questions about how the South would be organized after slavery ended.
At first, Union troops treated the island residents badly, taking their food and clothes. One officer was even caught trying to secretly sell a group of black people to Cuba as slaves.
Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase sent officials to the Sea Islands to collect and sell cotton. He also sent Edward Pierce to see what was happening in Port Royal. Pierce found that the army was controlling the plantations and paying very low wages. He said the black workers were experts at farming cotton but needed white managers. Pierce suggested setting up a supervised black farming group. This would prepare the workers for citizenship and show how labor could work after slavery.
The Treasury Department wanted to make money and was leasing occupied lands to Northern business owners. But Pierce argued that Port Royal was a chance to "settle a great social question": could freed black people be as hardworking as anyone else if they were organized properly? Chase sent Pierce to talk to President Lincoln. Lincoln was busy and at first didn't want to hear about "details." But he eventually gave Pierce permission to manage the situation.
Port Royal Experiment
The farming group was set up and became known as the Port Royal Experiment. It was seen as a possible way for black people to become economically successful after slavery. The Experiment got support from Northerners who hoped to prove that free labor would be more productive than slave labor. Groups like the American Missionary Association also helped. They recruited many college graduates to go to Port Royal on March 3, 1862.
The people living in Port Royal generally didn't like the military and civilian people who had taken over. Their joy turned to sadness when Union soldiers arrived on May 12 to draft all able-bodied black men into the army. Black farmers preferred to grow vegetables and catch fish. But the missionaries and other white people on the islands encouraged them to grow only cotton as a cash crop. They thought this would help black people join the consumer economy.
Despite some conflicts, the white sponsors of the Experiment saw good results. A businessman named John Murray Forbes said in May 1862 that it was "a decided success." He announced that black people would indeed work for wages.
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton made General Rufus Saxton the military governor of Port Royal in April 1862. By December, Saxton was pushing for black people to permanently control the land. He got support from Stanton, Chase, and Lincoln. Saxton also got approval to train a black militia, which became the 1st South Carolina Volunteers on January 1, 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation made it legal.
Landownership in the Sea Islands
Like elsewhere, black workers strongly felt they had a right to the lands they worked. The Confiscation Act of 1862 allowed the Treasury Department to sell many captured lands because of unpaid taxes. The government now claimed 76,775 acres of Sea Island land. The Sea Island cotton harvest was very valuable for Northern investors.
Most white people involved in the project felt that black ownership of the land should be the final goal. Saxton and others strongly pushed for the land to be given to black owners. In January 1863, Saxton stopped the Treasury Department's tax sale, saying it was a military necessity.
However, the tax commissioners held the auction anyway, selling ten thousand acres of land. Eleven plantations went to a group of Northern investors. One black farming group successfully outbid outside investors, paying about $7.00 per acre for the 470-acre plantation where they already lived and worked. Overall, most of the land was sold to Northern investors and stayed under their control.
In September 1863, Lincoln announced a plan to sell 60,000 acres of South Carolina land. He set aside 16,000 acres for "heads of families of the African race." These families could buy 20-acre lots for $1.25 per acre. Saxton and French thought the 16,000-acre reserve was not enough. They told black families to claim and build houses on all 60,000 acres. At French's urging, Chase and Lincoln allowed Sea Island families to claim 40-acre plots. Other adults could claim 20 acres. These plots would be bought for $1.25 per acre, with 40% paid upfront. This order mostly limited settlement to black people and missionaries who were already part of the Experiment.
Claims for land under the new plan started coming in right away. But Commissioner Brisbane ignored them, hoping the decision would be changed. Chase did change his mind in February, bringing back the plan for a tax sale. The sale happened in late February, with land selling for more than $11 per acre. This sale caused a lot of anger among freed people who had already claimed land based on Chase's December order.
Sherman's Orders and Promises
Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's "March to the Sea" brought a huge Union Army to the Georgia coast in December 1864. With the army came about ten thousand black refugees, former slaves. They were suffering from hunger and disease. Many had become disappointed with the Union Army because of looting and other bad treatment. They arrived in Savannah "weary, famished, and sick." On December 19, Sherman sent many of these freed people to Hilton Head, an island already used as a refugee camp. By December 22, there were about 15,000 people there.
On January 11, 1865, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton arrived in Savannah. He met with Generals Sherman and Saxton to discuss the refugee crisis. They decided to ask leaders from the local black community: "What do you want for your own people?"
At 8:00 PM on January 12, 1865, Sherman met with twenty black leaders. Many had been slaves for most of their lives. They had strong political feelings. They chose Garrison Frazier, a 67-year-old former pastor, as their spokesperson. Frazier had bought his own freedom and his wife's for $1,000. He told Sherman: "The way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor." Frazier suggested that young men would fight for the government, and that "the women and children and old men" would need to work this land. Almost everyone agreed to ask for land grants for black communities. They believed that racial hatred would stop black people from getting ahead in mixed areas.
Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 15
Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 15, issued on January 16, 1865, told officers to settle these refugees on the Sea Islands and inland. It set aside 400,000 acres (about 160,000 hectares) to be divided into 40-acre plots. Although mules were not mentioned in the order, some people who received land also got mules from the army. These plots were sometimes called "Blackacres."
Sherman's orders specifically gave "the islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns River, Florida." The order specifically said white people could not settle in this area. Saxton, who helped write the order, was put in charge of the new settlement. By June 1865, about 40,000 freed people were settled on 435,000 acres (176,000 hectares) in the Sea Islands.
Sherman issued these orders as a military leader, not the federal government for all former slaves. Some people claimed these settlements were never meant to last. However, the settlers and General Saxton did not believe this. Saxton said he asked Sherman to cancel the order if it wasn't meant to be permanent.
In reality, the land plots varied in size. Some were as small as eight acres and some were as large as 450 acres. Some areas were settled by groups. For example, Skidaway Island was settled by over 1,000 people.
Meaning of the Sea Islands Project
The Sea Islands project showed that "40 acres and a mule" was seen as the way for black people to succeed after slavery. Especially in 1865, it set a clear example for newly freed black people looking for their own land.
Freed people from all over the region came to the area looking for land. This led to refugee camps with disease and not enough supplies.
After Sherman's Orders, the coastal settlements created excitement for a new society that would replace slavery. One journalist wrote in April 1865: "It was the Plymouth colony repeating itself."
Wage Labor System
In occupied Louisiana, under General Nathaniel P. Banks, the military created a system where freed people would work for wages on large farms. This system offered strong one-year contracts to freed people. The contract promised $10 a month, plus food and medical care. This system was soon used in Mississippi too.
Sometimes land came under the control of Treasury officials. This led to disagreements between the Treasury Department and the military. Criticism of the Treasury Department making too much profit influenced public opinion in the North. It pushed Congress to support freedmen having direct control of land. Lincoln decided in favor of military control, and the wage labor system became more common. Some people who wanted to end slavery said this policy was no better than serfdom (a system where workers are tied to the land).
Davis Bend
One of the biggest black landownership projects happened at Davis Bend, Mississippi. This was an 11,000-acre area of plantations owned by Joseph Emory Davis and his famous brother, Jefferson Davis, who was the president of the Confederacy. Joseph Davis had allowed several hundred enslaved people to have good food, live in nice cottages, get medical care, and settle their disagreements in a weekly court. He relied a lot on the management skills of Ben Montgomery, an educated enslaved man who handled much of the plantation's business.
The Battle of Shiloh brought trouble to Davis Bend from 1862 to 1863, but its black residents kept farming. Black Union troops occupied the plantation in December 1863. General Ulysses S. Grant wanted to make the Davis plantations "a negro paradise." The land was leased to black tenants for the 1864 farming season. Black refugees moved to Davis Bend under the care of the Freedman's Department.
Davis Bend was caught in the middle of the fight between the military and the Treasury Department. In February 1864, the Treasury took back 2,000 acres of Davis Bend. It also leased 1,200 acres to Northern investors. The residents of Davis Bend strongly objected to these actions.
Freedmen's Bureau and Its Challenges
From 1863 to 1865, Congress discussed what policies to use to help the South after the war. Groups like the Freedmen's Aid Society pushed for a "Bureau of Emancipation" to help with the economic change away from slavery. They used Port Royal as proof that black people could live and work on their own. Land reform was often discussed. On January 31, 1865, the House of Representatives approved the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery.
Congress kept debating the economic and social standing of the free population. Land reform was seen as very important for black freedom. A bill was written to provide limited land for one year and military supervision for freedmen. It was rejected because some thought it didn't do enough for freedmen. A new, stronger bill was quickly written.
This stronger bill passed both houses on March 3, 1865. With this bill, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands under the War Department. The Bureau could provide supplies for refugees. It also had the power to give out land, in plots of up to 40 acres:
The bill set up a system where Southern black people could rent abandoned and taken land. The yearly rent would be 6% or less of the land's value in 1860. After three years, they could buy the land at its full price. The Bureau was overseen by the military because Congress expected they would need to protect black settlements from white Southerners. The bill aimed for black people to own the same land that had once relied on their unpaid labor.
After Lincoln's assassination, Andrew Johnson became president. On May 29, 1865, Johnson offered forgiveness to Southern citizens who swore loyalty. He promised to return their taken property. General Oliver Otis Howard, chief of the Freedmen's Bureau, asked how this would affect the Bureau's land plans. He was told that the Bureau still had the power to give out land.
Circular #13
Howard quickly acted on this, ordering a list of lands available for redistribution. He resisted attempts by white Southerners to reclaim property. At its peak in 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau controlled 800,000–900,000 acres of plantation lands that used to belong to slave owners. However, Johnson's forgiveness order eventually required the Bureau to return most of this land to its former owners.
On July 28, 1865, Howard issued "Circular no. 13." This order told Bureau agents to prioritize giving land to refugees and freedmen over Johnson's amnesty. It said: "The pardon of the President will not be understood to extend to the surrender of abandoned or confiscated property which by law has been 'set apart for Refugees and Freedmen'." With Circular #13, land redistribution became an official policy for the entire South.
However, Johnson and others quickly worked against Circular #13. When Howard returned from vacation, Johnson ordered him to write a new Circular that would respect his policy of returning land. Johnson wrote his own version, issued on September 12 as Circular #15. This new order made it very hard to officially call a property "confiscated." In many places, it completely stopped land redistribution.
Especially during the six weeks between Circular #13 and Circular #15, "40 acres and a mule" (along with other farming supplies) was a common promise from Freedmen's Bureau agents. A Bureau administrator in Virginia even suggested leasing each family 40 acres, two mules, tools, seeds, and food supplies. The family would pay for these supplies after selling their crops.
Black Codes
Southern states passed "Black Codes" in late 1865 and 1866. These laws created legal problems for the Bureau trying to give land to freed people. Some of the new laws stopped black people from owning or leasing land. The Freedmen's Bureau usually ignored the Black Codes, based on federal laws. But the Bureau couldn't always enforce its views after the Union Army was mostly sent home.
Other Land Plans
During and after the war, many leaders thought of different plans to give land to black families. The American Colonization Society, which had sent people to Liberia, didn't have enough resources to handle the large number of newly freed people.
Foreign Colonization Plans
Lincoln had long supported sending black people to other countries as a solution to slavery. In 1862, Congress approved $600,000 to fund Lincoln's plan to settle black people "in a climate congenial to them." Lincoln created an Emigration Office and told the State Department to find suitable land. One major plan was to send free black people to work as coal miners in Panama. They were promised 40 acres of land and a job. However, the plan was canceled because the coal was of poor quality.
Like Liberia, Haiti was also considered a good place to send freed people. Lincoln developed a plan to settle the small island of Île à Vache near Haiti. A total of 453 black people volunteered to go. But the businessman in charge took their money and didn't pay their wages. Many colonists died in the first year. Most of the survivors were brought back to the U.S. by the Navy in February 1864. Congress took away Lincoln's power to arrange colonization in July 1863.
Lincoln continued to try other colonization plans, but none worked out.
Southern Homesteading Act
As it became clear that there was less and less land available for black people, the Union discussed how black people might settle and own their own land. In Virginia, many black people had no land, which was a growing problem. Colonel Orlando Brown, head of the Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia, suggested moving Virginia's black people to Texas or Florida. He proposed that the government set aside 500,000 acres in Florida for soldiers and other free black people from Virginia. Howard took Brown's idea to Congress.
In December 1865, Congress started debating a "Second Freedmen's Bureau bill." This bill would have opened three million acres of public land in Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas for homesteading. Congress passed the bill in February 1866, but President Johnson vetoed it (rejected it). (Congress later passed a more limited "Second Freedmen's Bureau Bill" in July 1866, overriding Johnson's veto.)
Howard kept pushing Congress to set aside land for freedmen. With support from other politicians, Congress debated a new bill for black settlement on public lands in the South. This resulted in the Southern Homestead Act, which opened over 46 million acres of land in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas for homesteading. At first, plots were 80 acres, then 160 acres after June 1868. Johnson signed this bill, and it became law on June 21, 1866. Until January 1, 1867, only free black people and loyal white people could access these lands.
Howard ordered Bureau agents to tell free black people about the Homesteading Act. But local officials didn't spread the word widely. Many freed people were not willing to go to unknown places with few supplies, based only on the promise of land after five years.
Those who did try homesteading faced unreliable government offices that often didn't follow federal law. They also faced very tough conditions, usually on poor quality land that white settlers had already rejected. Still, free black people made about 6,500 claims for homesteads. About 1,000 of these eventually led to them getting official property certificates.
What Happened Next
Southern landowners got back control of almost all the land they had owned before the war. The national discussion about land ownership for freed people changed to focusing on a wage system for plantations. Under pressure from President Johnson and other politicians, the Freedmen's Bureau changed from protecting land rights to enforcing wage labor.
Hopes and Expectations
Free black people in the South widely believed that all land would be given to those who had worked on it. They also strongly felt they had a right to own this land. Many expected this to happen by Christmas 1865 or New Year's 1866. Although freed people believed this because of the Freedmen's Bureau policies and Circular #13, their hopes were soon dismissed as just a rumor.
The hope for "40 acres and a mule" was common starting in early 1865. The "40 acres" came from Sherman's Field Order and the Freedmen's Bureau bill. The "mule" was probably added because it was clearly needed for farming. ("Forty acres" was a slogan that represented many different ways of owning and farming land.)
A false rumor spread among white Southerners that if the land wasn't given out by Christmas, angry black people would start a violent uprising. Alabama and Mississippi passed laws to form white armed groups, which violently took weapons from free black people.
Some black leaders, especially those who had been free before the war, focused more on voting rights and equal rights than on economic issues like land. They often agreed with white Republicans who didn't support taking land from former Confederates. This meant that most African Americans during Reconstruction didn't see huge economic progress, even though they made political gains.
Wage Labor
Southern farm owners complained that newly freed black people wouldn't sign long-term work contracts because they were waiting for land. South Carolina Governor James Lawrence Orr asked Johnson in 1866 to keep pushing his land policy.
Black hopes for land were seen as a major problem for economic production. Both the South and North worked hard to end these hopes. Southern governments passed "Black Codes" to stop black people from owning or leasing land and to limit their freedom of movement. Agents of the Freedmen's Bureau now told black people that land redistribution was impossible and they would need to work for wages to survive. If people wouldn't sign contracts, the agents would insist forcefully. Even Rufus Saxton, who had fought for black property in the Sea Islands, told his agents to stop the rumor of land redistribution by New Year's 1866.
Many historians say that economic talks between black and white people in the South happened within the rules set by the Johnson administration. Southern plantation owners pushed black people toward servitude, while the Republican Congress pushed for free wage labor and civil rights. Eventually, sharecropping became the main way of farming. Some historians argue that land ownership changed a lot during the 1870s. Black land ownership did increase across the South.
Tidewater Virginia
Many black people who had settled around Hampton were forced to leave in different ways. These included Johnson's policy of returning land, Black Codes passed by Virginia, and violent actions by returning Confederates. Union troops also forced settlers out, sometimes leading to violent clashes. Many black people came to trust the Freedmen's Bureau no more than they trusted the former Confederates. In 1866, the refugee camps in Tidewater were still full, and many residents were sick and dying. Relations with white people had become very hostile. White authorities agreed on a plan to send the freed people back to their home counties.
After the period of land being returned, land ownership slowly increased. Hampton already had some black landowners, like the family of American Revolutionary War veteran Caesar Tarrant. In 1860, about eight free black people owned land in Hampton. By 1870, about 121 free black people owned land in the area. Those who owned land before the war expanded their holdings.
Some black people in Hampton formed a community land trust called Lincoln's Land Association and bought several hundred acres of surrounding land. Land for the Hampton Institute (later Hampton University) was bought from 1867 to 1872.
Many freed people couldn't afford to buy land right after the war. But they earned money in jobs outside farming, like fishing and oystering. So, black land ownership increased even faster during the 1870s. In Charles City County, three-quarters of black farm workers owned their own farms, averaging 36 acres. In York County, 50% owned their farms, averaging 20 acres. These relatively small farms, often on poorer land, didn't make huge profits. But they gave black people economic power, and many from this region held political office.
Survivors of the camps also achieved a high level of land ownership and business success in the town of Hampton itself.
Sea Islands
President Johnson's amnesty order did not apply to many Sea Islands landowners. However, most of them got special pardons directly from Johnson. General Rufus Saxton was overwhelmed with claims for properties in the "Sherman Reserve." Saxton wrote to Howard on September 5, 1865, asking him to protect black landownership on the Sea Islands. He argued that the government had promised this land to the freed people.
Circular no. 15, issued days later, made the former landowners try even harder to get their land back. Saxton kept resisting. Johnson sent Howard to the Islands, telling him to find a "mutually satisfactory" solution. Howard understood this meant returning the land to its pre-war owners. He told the islanders about Johnson's plan. But with support from Stanton, Howard appointed a sympathetic captain, Alexander P. Ketchum, to oversee the change. Ketchum and Saxton continued to resist claims from former Confederate white owners.
The settlers formed a group to resist losing their lands. They were willing to defend their homes strongly. The Sea Island homesteaders also wrote directly to Howard and Johnson, insisting that the government keep its promise and let them keep their homes.
However, the political mood continued to favor the Southern landowners. Saxton and Ketchum lost their positions. In the winter of 1866–1867, soldiers forced out settlers who couldn't show the correct land deeds. Black settlers kept control of 1,565 titles, totaling 63,000 acres. An officer reported that soldiers took certificates from freedmen, said they were worthless, and destroyed them. When people refused to sign new work contracts, they were sometimes forced out into the roads, where many died from smallpox.
Soldiers continued to evict settlers and enforce work agreements. This led to a large armed standoff in 1867 between the Army and farmers who wouldn't renew their contracts. 90% of the land on Skidaway Island was taken.
The (second) Second Freedmen's Bureau bill, passed in July 1866 over Johnson's veto, said that freed people whose lands had been returned to Confederate owners could pay $1.25 per acre for up to 20 acres of land in certain parishes of Beaufort County, South Carolina. This area was overseen by Major Martin Delany, who supported black land ownership. About 1,900 families with land titles resettled in Beaufort County, buying 19,040 acres of land at low prices.
Many people stayed on the islands and kept the Gullah culture of their ancestors. Several hundred thousand Gullah people live on the Sea Islands today. In recent years, their claim to the land has been threatened by developers wanting to build vacation resorts.
Davis Bend
Samuel Thomas was eventually removed from his job. Joseph Davis got back control of his plantation in 1867 and quickly sold it to Ben Montgomery for $300,000. This price, $75 per acre, was relatively low. The sale itself was illegal because Mississippi's Black Codes outlawed selling property to black people. So, Davis and Montgomery did the deal in secret.
Montgomery invited free black people to settle and work the land. In 1887, led by Benjamin's son Isaiah Montgomery, the group founded a new settlement at Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Mound Bayou is still an independent and almost entirely black community today.
Politics of Land Ownership
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Politicians like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner continued to support land reform for freed people. But they were opposed by many other politicians who didn't want to break property rights or redistribute wealth.
Many Northern politicians who were once radical stopped supporting land reform after the war. One reason was that Republicans feared if black people owned land, they might start supporting the Democratic Party for economic reasons. In general, politicians started focusing more on the legal rights of freed people. Some historians believe that giving black people the right to vote became more popular because it was a cheaper alternative to expensive land reform. So, most African Americans during Reconstruction didn't achieve the big economic progress seen in their political gains.
Legacy of the Promise
According to historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., the promise of "40 acres and a mule" was the first real attempt to provide some form of payment or "reparations" to newly freed slaves. It was a very bold idea for its time. It involved the government taking private property (about 400,000 acres) from Confederate landowners and giving it to former black slaves.
Historian John David Smith says that the government never actually made a promise to give "forty acres and a mule" to all freed people. But the fact that freed people desperately wanted land, felt tricked, and betrayed, shows how black people were treated in 19th-century America. The feeling of betrayal still exists today. The idea of "forty acres and a mule" remains a powerful symbol of the broken hopes of former slaves.
By the 1870s, black people had given up hope of the federal government giving them land. But many still saw "forty acres and a mule" as the key to freedom. Black land ownership in the South steadily increased despite the failure of federal Reconstruction plans. By 1900, one-quarter of black farmers in the South owned their land. Most of this land was simply bought through private deals.
In 1910, black Americans owned 15 million acres of land. This number has since dropped to 2 million acres in 1997. The total number of black farmers has also greatly decreased. Black American land ownership has gone down more than that of any other ethnic group, while white land ownership has increased. Black families who inherit land without clear legal titles often face problems and risk losing their land. Fraud and violence have also been used to take land from black people.
Black landowners are often targeted by eminent domain laws, which allow the government to take private land for public projects. For example, at Harris Neck in the Sea Islands, a group of Gullah freed people kept 2,681 acres of good land. About 100 black farmers lived there until 1942. They were forced off the land to build an Air Force base. The land was later turned into the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. Ownership of this land is still debated.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been seen as a reason for the decline in black farming. A 1997 report by the USDA itself said that the department was slow to include women and minorities in leadership. It was also seen as playing a role in forcing minority farmers off their land through unfair loan practices. A lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman (1999), accused the USDA of systematic discrimination against black farmers. The court ruled in favor of the farmers and ordered the USDA to pay for lost land and income. However, full payment for affected farmers is still an issue.
Symbolism
The phrase "40 acres and a mule" has come to stand for the broken promise that Reconstruction policies would bring economic fairness for African Americans.
The "40 acres and a mule" promise was important in the discrimination lawsuit of Pigford v. Glickman. In his decision, federal judge Paul L. Friedman ruled that the United States Department of Agriculture had discriminated against African-American farmers. He wrote: "Forty acres and a mule. The government broke that promise to African American farmers."
In 1989, U.S. Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill to study proposals for reparations for African-Americans. The bill was later numbered H.R. 40 as a reference to the promise.
Reparations
"40 Acres and a Mule" is often discussed when talking about reparations for slavery. However, the policies that offered "forty acres" were for political and economic reasons, and usually involved a price. They were not meant as unconditional payment for lifetimes of unpaid labor.
Images for kids
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15th Amendment, or the Darkey's millennium - 40 acres of land and a mule.
See also
In Spanish: Cuarenta acres y una mula para niños
