40 Acres And A Mule was supposed to give formerly enslaved people the resources to build independent lives following the Civil War. It was nothing but lies.
Lie #1: No One Got 40 Acres: It's not widely known that hundreds of our people received titles to land plots between 4 and 40 acres on islands along the coastline of Georgia, South Carolina, and Northern Florida. Freed folks established communities, built homes, created local governments and a militia, and began farming the land. But their Black utopia didn't last long. Within a year, the government took back most of the land and returned it to former enslavers.
Lie #2: Mules Were Promised: The order didn't mention mules, even though some formerly enslaved people received them. Regardless, our people tapped into centuries of Indigenous agricultural knowledge to tend to their lands without mules or machinery so that they could keep providing for their families and communities.
Lie #3: We Were "Free": '40 Acres and a Mule' wasn’t a freedom ticket. Without land of their own, millions resorted to work on former plantations as sharecroppers, an exploitative system not much better than slavery.
While we must continue fighting for what we're owed, broken promises ain’t never broke us. Together, we have the power and resources to determine our own futures in every way.