The Short‑Lived Promise of ’40 Acres and a Mule’
As the Civil War was ending, recently freed Black people were promised land to start independent lives—but Lincoln’s assassination led to that plan’s demise.
“What do you want for your own people?”
That’s the question Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton suggested Union General William T. Sherman pose to 20 Black pastors in Savannah, Georgia, as the Civil War neared its end and enslaved African Americans neared freedom.