"40 acres and a mule" was a total lie. There weren't enough mules in the whole world to make that happen in reality. I learned about that decades ago.
My ancestor who owned slaves sold them before the war, because he saw what was coming. There are two thoughts in the family: either he just wanted to get his money out of them, or he didn't want to be the one to throw them out on their own without a dime. After the war, his money was useless, as it was all Confederate. I have one $20 bill from his "box of money." I do know he was very frugal. He died in the 1890s.
At least in Person County, NC, the "40 acres" didn't really happen either. Some of the former slaves continued to work for their old masters for whatever the masters could afford to pay in the depressed economy. Others moved into town and got jobs. You can page through the 1870 Census for Southern states and see what the black people were actually doing, not what a book claims.
Lincoln was not the shining hero of history books. He wanted to ship black people to Africa. The Emancipation Proclamation was only to punish the South, and it excepted those slaves living in New Orleans, Norfolk, and some other places. He was also a true life bastard. Tom Lincoln was not his father and only appeared when Abe was already a toddler. That's based on eyewitness testimony.
"40 acres and a mule" was a total lie. There weren't enough mules in the whole world to make that happen in reality. I learned about that decades ago.
My ancestor who owned slaves sold them before the war, because he saw what was coming. There are two thoughts in the family: either he just wanted to get his money out of them, or he didn't want to be the one to throw them out on their own without a dime. After the war, his money was useless, as it was all Confederate. I have one $20 bill from his "box of money." I do know he was very frugal. He died in the 1890s.
At least in Person County, NC, the "40 acres" didn't really happen either. Some of the former slaves continued to work for their old masters for whatever the masters could afford to pay in the depressed economy. Others moved into town and got jobs. You can page through the 1870 Census for Southern states and see what the black people were actually doing, not what a book claims.
Lincoln was not the shining hero of history books. He wanted to ship black people to Africa. The Emancipation Proclamation was only to punish the South, and it excepted those slaves living in New Orleans, Norfolk, and some other places. He was also a true life bastard. Tom Lincoln was not his father and only appeared when Abe was already a toddler. That's based on eyewitness testimony.