FORTY ACRES AND A MULE
On January 12, 1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman, along with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton met with 20 Black pastors in the Green House in Savannah Georgia. Many of these pastors had been slaves and their spokesman was Pastor Garrison Frazier. Sherman and Stanton, on orders from Abraham Lincoln, had called this meeting in order to find out what the Freedman expected from the Union after the war. Pastor Frazier said this. Put us on land. Let us work the land, and in time we will be able to purchase the land from the labor of our own hands. One of the worst things about slavery was that the slave was not able to enjoy the fruits of his own labor. Lincoln had noted this early on. Now let that sink in. You cannot send a more conservative message than this. This is the very thing that a true Conservative believes in with his whole heart.
I love what reverend Frazier says next. Give us our rights, protect our rights, and then leave us alone. These words are the cornerstone of our freedom and what every American should strive for regardless of race. This has been the Republican and Conservative message from the start. I am inspired that this humble and unlearned man knew the principles behind the Declaration of Independence and Constitution better than the vast amount of our college students do today. The only correction that I would make is that no one can give you inalienable rights except God. The Black man already had those rights but they had been denied him by tyrants usurping those rights. Sherman was no friend of the Black man but this is a peek into the possible approach that Lincoln would have taken toward reconstruction had he lived to implement it. He issued Special Orders # 15 setting aside the land abandoned by Southern Plantation owners on the barrier islands from Charleston down to the islands off of the east coast of Florida down to the St. Johns river. He allowed each slave forty acres. Giving rise to the saying " Forty Acres And A Mule". The Freedman's Act that passed in March 1865 did not mention giving land to the Freedman. Upon the death of Lincoln Andrew Johnson became president. Johnson revoked Sherman's Special Order # 15.
I love what reverend Frazier says next. Give us our rights, protect our rights, and then leave us alone. These words are the cornerstone of our freedom and what every American should strive for regardless of race. This has been the Republican and Conservative message from the start. I am inspired that this humble and unlearned man knew the principles behind the Declaration of Independence and Constitution better than the vast amount of our college students do today. The only correction that I would make is that no one can give you inalienable rights except God. The Black man already had those rights but they had been denied him by tyrants usurping those rights. Sherman was no friend of the Black man but this is a peek into the possible approach that Lincoln would have taken toward reconstruction had he lived to implement it. He issued Special Orders # 15 setting aside the land abandoned by Southern Plantation owners on the barrier islands from Charleston down to the islands off of the east coast of Florida down to the St. Johns river. He allowed each slave forty acres. Giving rise to the saying " Forty Acres And A Mule". The Freedman's Act that passed in March 1865 did not mention giving land to the Freedman. Upon the death of Lincoln Andrew Johnson became president. Johnson revoked Sherman's Special Order # 15.
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