Jan16
from: The African American Registry
*On this day in 1865, Forty Acres and a Mule was inacted.
In the midst of his ‘March to the Sea’ during the Civil War, General William T. Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with 20 Black community leaders of Savannah, Georgia.
Based partly to their input, Gen. Sherman issued Special Field Order #15 on January 16, 1865, setting aside the Sea Islands and a 330-mileinland tract of land along the southern coast of Charleston for the exclusive settlement of Blacks. Each family would receive 40 acres of land and an army mule to work the land, thus “Forty Acres and A Mule.” Gen. Rufus Saxton was assigned by Sherman to implement the Order. (more…)
