Black Anthems: Who's Gon' Be Alright?

40 Acres and Mule

Lamar begins his second verse by making reference to the broken promise made to newly freed enslaved Black people. In 1865, General William T. Sherman issued special field orders, No. 15 that stated that each family of newly freed slaves “shall have a plot of not more than forty acres of tillable ground” of confiscated Confederate land. Although not officially in the order, some families received mules that were left over from the army. The shorthand of this special order later became known by the shorthand phrase: “40 acres and a mule.” President Andrew Johnson reversed this order and redistributed the land to its original Confederate owners.

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