Reparations
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Even though most people are of the idea that slaves families are owed nothing,
Black descendants of slaves are owed reparations because The U.S. Government needs
to abide by the promise made to slaves and their families African Americans of slave
descent are entitled to reparations. The first notion of reparations for slavery came in the
form of land that slaves had worked in some cases while living on the plantation. Thousands of freed slaves (called freedmen) accompanied Shermans forces. The
United States Government made a promise based on their military need. The land was
divided into 40-acre tracts and Sherman distributed land titles. This is the origin of the
phrase forty acres and a mule. The Federal Government reneged on their promise. The
most important reason African Americans of slave decent are entitled to Reparations, is
slaves were promised 40 acres and the use of military mules with their freedom, for their
part in the Civil war.
The Freedmans Bureau was established by Congress in March One
of its many functions was to supervise and manage all abandoned land. Confiscated land
also in the south and continue to assign tracts of land to former slaves. Former owners of
the land, pressure President Andrew Johnson. They wanted their land returned to them.
They were afraid that black landowners and farmers would start to accumulate wealth
and power in the South.
On March 3, 1865, just weeks before the end of the Civil War and almost a year prior
to the ratification of the 13th Amendment the Freedmen’s Bureau as created by Congress.
Originally the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, the Freedmen’s
Bureau was responsible for, among other things, “the supervision and management of all
abandoned lands the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from rebel
States.” Also according to Section 4 of the First Freedmen’s Bureau Act, this agency
“shall have authority to set apart for use of loyal refugees and freedmen such tracts of
land within the insurrectionary states as shall have been
abandoned or to which the United States shall have acquired title by confiscation or sale,
or otherwise; and to every male citizen, whether refugee or freedman, as aforesaid there
shall be assigned not more than 40 acres of such land.” Introduced into Congress by
Thaddeus Stevens this portion of the Freedmen’s Bureau Act was defeated by Congress
on February 5, 1866 “by a vote of 126 to 36.” Lands which had been distributed to
freedmen were reclaimed and returned to the previous owner. The second possibility for