Black land loss in the United States refers to the loss of land ownership and rights by Black people residing or farming in the United States. In 1862, the United States government passed the Homestead Act. This Act gave certain Americans seeking farmland the right to apply for ownership of government land or the public domain. This newly acquired farmland was typically called a homestead. In all, more than 160 million acres (650,000 km2; 250,000 sq mi) of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders. However, until the United States abolished slavery in 1865 and the passage of the 14th amendment in 1868, enslaved and free Blacks could not benefit from these acts.[1] According to data published by the National Park Service and the University of Nebraska, some 6000 homesteads of an average of 160 acres (65 ha; 0.25 sq mi) were issued to Blacks in the years immediately following the war.
At about the same time, as black Americans began seeking out land of their own, Special Field Orders No. 15 was issued through the Savannah Colloquy. The order issued freed black people 40 acres of land that lay on the coastline of Georgia and South Carolina. In addition, the mules that had been used in the war and were now idle were expected to be offered to these black Americans for use in farming, leading to the phrase "forty acres and a mule". The Freedmen's Bureau was created by the government and President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 to deal with the issue of the freed black people and their settlement in the abandoned land. Sherman's Land was a Field Order that gave a significant number of freed black people the opportunity to settle on land in Georgia and South Carolina. There were around 40,000 of these freed black people who settled in over 400,000 acres of land. However, it later turned out these lands belonged to rice plantation farmers.[2] According to Linda Faye Williams, it also turned out that while the Freedman's Bureau had the potential to help freed slaves get on their feet, ultimately all of the land that was supposed to be distributed amongst the freed black people was given back to confederate planters who previously owned it, by Pres. Andrew Johnson, who overturned the Field Order.[3]
^Bowles, Samuel; Gintis, Herbert (2002-08-01). "The Inheritance of Inequality". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 16 (3): 3–30. doi:10.1257/089533002760278686. ISSN 0895-3309.
^Conley, D. (2010). Being Black, Living in the Red: Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
^Williams, Linda Faye (2010-11-01). Constraint of Race: Legacies of White Skin Privilege in America. Penn State Press. pp. 3–43. ISBN 978-0271046723.
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