Reparations Tee

Special Field order number 15 was issued on January 16, 1865 by General William Tecumseh Sherman, and approved by President Abraham Lincoln

The order came at the end of slavery, and was meant to handle the issue of freed slaves without a place in the world.

The government had confiscated about 400,000 acres of confederate land at the end of the civil war. This land was supposed to be given to the freed families, with each family to get 40 acres each. Land was important due to farming, and would help the families establish economic independence.

Also, the army was to loan the families a mule, which would help with farm labor.

After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson revoked the order and returned the land back to the confederates, ending the opportunity for the US government to make things right for African Americans for enslavement.

This is where the term "40 acres and a mule" comes from, and why so many are fighting for reparations to this day