40 acres and a mule

Looking positively on the Sea Island experiment, Stevens proposed redistributing 394,000,000 acres owned by about 70,000 rebels.

The bureau had the authority to give forty acres plots of abandoned and confiscated land to to Freedman and Southern white refugees who had been loyal to the Union.

The Sea Islands came to serve as a test for the policy of land confiscation advocated by the Radical Republicans in Congress.

Some argued for a "hands off" approach to the Freedmen, which which they claimed would foster independence, while others insisted that it would be unfair to abandon the Freedmen to their former masters without the economic base they would need to become independent citizens.

Or a staunch supporter of the Freedmen?

Under this order each family would be eligible for 40 acres of land for their own cultivation.

The omission of land confiscation from the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 was a severe blow to the Radical Republicans, and to their plans to aid the Freedmen and break the Southern ruling class.

by M. O'Malley & F. L. Carr for GMU's History 122 class

Prior to any formal, governmental policy on reconstruction, General William T. Sherman created his own land redistribution policy.

Congress created the Freedmen's bureau as a temporary compromise measure which would aid Freedmen and women in the immediate transition to freedom but prevent any long-term dependency.

Some argued for a "hands off" approach to the Freedmen, which which they claimed would foster independence, while others insisted that it would be unfair to abandon the Freedmen to their former masters without the economic base they would need to become independent citizens.

It seems likely that Sherman's intention was simply to relieve his army of the thousands of Freedmen and women who had been following it since Sherman's invasion of Georgia.

The Sea Islands came to serve as a test for the policy of land confiscation advocated by the Radical Republicans in Congress.