On Jan. 16, 1865, Union General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15, promising freed Black families 40 acres and an army mule. The order, developed with input from Black leaders in Savannah, Georgia, set aside the Sea Islands and a 330-mile coastal stretch from Charleston, South Carolina, to Florida for settlement by freed Africans.
Land ownership was seen as the key to freedom and equality. After slavery was abolished, the land fell under the jurisdiction of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which aimed to protect property rights and establish schools.
However, President Andrew Johnson later overturned Sherman’s order, returning the land to its original white owners. This betrayal forced many freed Black families into sharecropping, trapping them in cycles of poverty and debt.
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