In 1865, American General William T. Sherman issued a special field order
In 1865, American General William T. Sherman issued a special field order that would have provided each Black family in America with 40 acres of land and an army mule to work the land. In the midst of his "March to the Sea" during the American Civil War, General Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with 20 Black community leaders of Savannah, Georgia. Based partly on their input, Gen. Sherman issued Special Field Order #15 on January 16, 1865, setting aside the Sea Islands and a 330-mile inland tract of land along the southern coast of Charleston for the exclusive settlement of Blacks. The Union Army had confiscated this land. Each family would receive 40 acres of land and an army mule to work the land, thus "forty acres and a mule," a phrase incorporated into the English language for compensation that was to be awarded to freed Black slaves after the Civil War but was returned instead to former landowners. The order applied to Black families who lived...