The issue of Reparations: SHERMAN...Not Lincoln...AND it was all RESCINDED after Lincoln's death!!!

Meme courtesy of Musicman.


The premise that Abraham Lincoln gave reparations of "40 acres and a mule" to formerly enslaved people is historically inaccurate for two main reasons:

• The promise was revoked and never fulfilled: The idea of "40 acres and a mule" originated from Union General William T. Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 in January 1865 (with approval leading up to it), which redistributed confiscated Confederate coastal land to newly freed families.

However, after President Lincoln’s assassination, his successor, President Andrew Johnson, rescinded the order later in 1865 and returned almost all of the land to former Confederate slaveholders.


• Compensated emancipation went to slave owners, not the enslaved: Under the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 signed by Lincoln, the federal government actually paid reparations to white slave owners (up to $300 per freed person) for their "loss of property," while offering no such compensation or land security to the people who had been enslaved.

Why the Call for Reparations Continues

Democrats and civil rights advocates argue that systemic economic restitution has never happened. Their ongoing push for reparations is driven by several factors:

• The Racial Wealth Gap: Because the 40-acres promise failed and was followed by eras of Jim Crow, sharecropping, redlining, and exclusion from programs like the New Deal and the GI Bill, white American families today hold roughly 8 to 10 times the wealth of Black American families.

• Legislative and Policy Efforts: Modern proposals—such as congressional bills to study or implement restitution (e.g., H. Res. 414 introduced by Rep. Cori Bush or long-standing federal study bills first introduced by Representative John Conyers in 1989)—aim to address these multi-generational disparities through housing grants, community investments, or direct financial acknowledgment.