The "40 acres and a mule" tale/truth

krvaldovinos

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Wisconsin
We've all heard that freed slaves at the end of the war were given 40 acres and a mule, but I've also heard that this was only issued out by Sherman given to the freedmen who marched with him and the land was in reference to the destroyed southern land in the wake of his march to the sea. Are there any sources that have the truth about this that can be cited?

Whenever this is brought up people seem 100% sure that their story is the correct one.
 
We've all heard that freed slaves at the end of the war were given 40 acres and a mule, but I've also heard that this was only issued out by Sherman given to the freedmen who marched with him and the land was in reference to the destroyed southern land in the wake of his march to the sea. Are there any sources that have the truth about this that can be cited?

Whenever this is brought up people seem 100% sure that their story is the correct one.

Yeah. That is about half the truth. On March 3, 1865 the Congress passed the bill that created the "Freedmen's Bureau" (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Matter of fact the Head of that Bureau was General O.O. Howard.) The Bureau could redistribute "abandoned" land in parcels of 40 acres maximum. And not for free. And they did not own it. They had to lease it. Lincoln died and on May Johnson issued the amnesty proclamation that returned a lot of that land back. Howard and Johnson had a bit of a spat about it and Johnson won.

That's pretty much it..
 
We've all heard that freed slaves at the end of the war were given 40 acres and a mule, but I've also heard that this was only issued out by Sherman given to the freedmen who marched with him and the land was in reference to the destroyed southern land in the wake of his march to the sea. Are there any sources that have the truth about this that can be cited?

Whenever this is brought up people seem 100% sure that their story is the correct one.


The "40 acres and a mule" promise was a war-time measure which was applicable only to a specific group of people at a specific location.

On January 16, 1865, General W. Sherman issued Special Field Order #15 which created settlements exclusively for ex-slaves on the Sea Islands and portions of the coastal lowlands south of Charleston. In his order Sherman wrote: "to assist his family and settlement in procuring agricultural implements, seed, tools, boots, clothing, and other articles necessary for their livelihood...each family shall have a plot of not more than (40) forty acres of tillable ground."

Sherman, according to Eric Foner's book Reconstruction, America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, promised that he would obtain mules for the families of these newly formed settlements to aid them in raising crops. The reason this idea was never implemented beyond the Sea Island settlements is because Special Order #15 was a military order that was valid only during wartime. While Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau in March, 1865, and authorized it to distribute just under a million acres of confiscated Southern land to the emancipated slaves, it did not authorize a specific "40 acres and a mule." In August 1865, President Johnson bowing to special interest pressures (ex-Confederate,) ordered the return of confiscated land to the pardoned, former owners that had been given to ex-slaves.
 
We've all heard that freed slaves at the end of the war were given 40 acres and a mule,

I know very few African Americans who believe or understand that freed slaves were given 40 acres and a mule. Many believe that the freedmen were promised 40 acres and a mule, or were "owed" 40 acres and a mule, but never received it.

- Alan
 
Sherman, according to Eric Foner's book Reconstruction, America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, promised that he would obtain mules for the families of these newly formed settlements to aid them in raising crops. The reason this idea was never implemented beyond the Sea Island settlements is because Special Order #15 was a military order that was valid only during wartime. While Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau in March, 1865, and authorized it to distribute just under a million acres of confiscated Southern land to the emancipated slaves, it did not authorize a specific "40 acres and a mule." In August 1865, President Johnson bowing to special interest pressures (ex-Confederate,) ordered the return of confiscated land to the pardoned, former owners that had been given to ex-slaves.

I have this book but haven't read it yet. I'll finally get to reading it and check his sources. Thank you!
 
We've all heard that freed slaves at the end of the war were given 40 acres and a mule, but I've also heard that this was only issued out by Sherman given to the freedmen who marched with him and the land was in reference to the destroyed southern land in the wake of his march to the sea. Are there any sources that have the truth about this that can be cited?

Whenever this is brought up people seem 100% sure that their story is the correct one.

I'm astonished that your friends and associates believe this to be true. It is not.

It is true that many abolitionists and their followers advocated it in the immediate post-War period, but it was never implemented, aside from the the experimental small-scale program established by Gen. Sherman discussed above.
 
The introduction on that page mentions the mule, but the order as quoted on the same page does not. Can anyone give a reference for the mule?

Secondary sources often use the phase "40 acres and a mule" and it's often spoken of as if official US policy, but the mule part never seems to source back to Sherman. The Google Ngram shows the phrase did not come into usage till about 50 years after the war.
 
I actually read that on a comment on this site. Someone said they wrote their thesis about it and it was true. (I spent the whole morning trying to find that comment/thread but couldn't. Lol)

Well of course there are thousands of books out there on Reconstruction, a lot of them written by professional historians, and they all pretty much agree on this point.

One thing that took me by surprise in reading Foner's book was how openly the Radical Republicans in Washington talked about land redistribution as a necessary step to develop a base of Republican voters who could hold control of the state governments in the ex-Confederate states. Silly me, here I thought it was about justice and fairness to the ex-slave...
 
One thing that took me by surprise in reading Foner's book was how openly the Radical Republicans in Washington talked about land redistribution as a necessary step to develop a base of Republican voters who could hold control of the state governments in the ex-Confederate states. Silly me, here I thought it was about justice and fairness to the ex-slave...

Is this what people call "carpetbaggers"?
 

Except as @Allie noted, there is no mention of any "MULE" in the SFO #15. I guess African-American Registry didn't bother to read the Order either. 40 acres and a steamboat would have been a bit more accurate!

Is there a credible source for the story that Sherman offered to "loan" mules to the new land-owners? It does appear as a claim on various websites.
 
same as 150 years later "Were from the GOV and are here to help"
 
Is this what people call "carpetbaggers"?

"Carpetbagger" is a reference to white northerners who travelled south to take economic and political advantage of the aftermath of the war. It doesn't apply to the freed slaves.

Yes, the Carpetbaggers were there, in part, to build a political base for the Republicans. It's really more complicated than that, however. Everyone's individual motivation was different.
 
I guess this misconception is another one we can blame on Margaret Mitchell.

I recently re-watched sections of Gone With The Wind and there is a scene where a Yankee carpetbagger is promising gullible ex-slaves that they will get 40 acres and a mule and says "you'll vote like your friends do."
 
I guess this misconception is another one we can blame on Margaret Mitchell.

I recently re-watched sections of Gone With The Wind and there is a scene where a Yankee carpetbagger is promising gullible ex-slaves that they will get 40 acres and a mule and says "you'll vote like your friends do."

I remember a college lecture years ago where the professor said something to the effect that the 40 acres and a mule for thousands of ex- slaves was a no go one the Northern textile industry understood that such farmers would be marginal subsistence farmers and not major producers of cotton.
 
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