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The first primary source for this article is no longer available. Can anyone else find a strong source to support the information within the article?
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.43.145.13 (talk) 00:31, 24 September 2005
The reason why there is no good source is because this is a convenient myth not supported by historical documents.. A number of former slaves received land in the Black Swamp of NW Ohio - some of the cheapest, most worthless land in the US at the time. The land was so hostile to habitation - malarial ague, spread by great numbers of freakishly large mosquitos, led to short lives and high rates of infantile death. Additionally, the trees were massive in diameter and great in height = many were floated down the Maumee to be eventually used in the greatest Naval vessel and merchantmen ships of the era. The land, omce cleared, was a heavy clayey muck that made it extremely difficult for man or beast to walk on, making the agricultural skills of the South effectively useless. Settlers could survive by selling those huge timbers for ship masts, by weilding an adze to produce barrel staves and by burning the remaining wood scraps to produce potash which could be shipped in bulk, in those wooden barrels as lye, or used with pork fat to produce soap. Many of the first black settlers of Paulding County (the only county entirely within the Black Swamp) still live there, especially in Latty and Washington Township, although they were not listed in early censuses because nonwhites were of no interest to the census bureau. According to family stories, the forty acres was real, although it was hardly arable land until the swamp was drained decades later, but the mules were imaginary; cynics claim they were sold to westbound settlers by crooked government agents, but if they had been, how would they have known. In any case, they needed the mules in the army until the war was over, at which time, keeping promises to (n-word)s was hardly a priority for bureaucrats. This is a tender subject among the hoi polloi, and a student doing his doctoral thesis on the black population of NW Ohio encountered fierce resistance from white officials in gaining access to the earliest rrecords, which had been kept in a room with broken windows, mostly shielded from rain but less so from blowing snow and bird manure. 64.184.68.136 (talk) 02:44, 16 October 2012 (UTC)
I have a question? Sherman did his math wrong because 400,000 acres divided by 40,000 newly freed black slaves would be 10 acres and a mule not 40. Can anyone tell me why it is 40 and not 10? thanks pheifdog
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.218.137.238 (talk) 01:25, 8 November 2006
40 acres has to do with what was concidered profitable and stable at the time. Ten good acres could bring a farmer a good garden crop for himself but for profit, forty acres was a standard plot.
The real question isn weather he was right but did he the authority? what was Shermans orders? What power did those order give him and why does the white decendents continue fighting reprorations so hard? -Antony —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 199.173.226.228 (talk) 17:47, 3 January 2007 (UTC).
Forty acres is 1/16 of a square mile. It is just enough for subsistence farming. A mule - an animal that cannot be bred to produce more animals - had a lifespan of roughly 35 years. The combination of 40 acres and only one mule describes a situation for a hardscrabble existence, requiring plenty of continual hard work. The promise of 40 acres & a mule should not be confused for a promise of ease, comfort, or prosperity. Sussmanbern (talk) 17:33, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
The promise, if it was actually made, was to males who joined Sherman's Army on its marches and combat, it was not a guarantee for every former slaves but only for those men who became Union soldiers - and in Sherman's Army in particular. Sussmanbern (talk) 17:38, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
Johnson may have revoked Sherman's order and returned the legal rights to the former owners, but were the black homesteaders ever actually kicked off the land? I have read that many of them were never removed and their descendents are still living in the area (technically squatting on "abandoned" land, much like the Gullah of the Sea Islands or the Smokey Hollow community in Tate, Georgia). 74.36.192.45 04:10, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
Check this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_Special_Field_Orders,_No._15
Also, note that "Field Order Number 15" redirects to "40 Acres and Mule", not the above. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.8.217.76 (talk) 01:04, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
The sentence beginning
deserves a replacement with less direct focus on the mistake, which is a distraction from the topic (at least in the absence of verification that the mistake, as opposed to the fact, is notable; if such verification is available, let's see it so we can discuss whether the mistake meets our standards for notability).
How about, for now, sticking to what is surely easily verifiable -- what he did veto -- with its footnote ref, and what is a reasonable inference, implicitly informative about the mistake, and probably verifiable as scholarly consensus -- with a fact tag that will serve to solicit a verifying ref. I.e., something along the lines of:
Or perhaps the war/peace contrast, or the distinction between "white Southerners" and "Democrats" is mistaken, and other language should replace my first-thought candidate. In fact, maybe someone can quickly come up with the scholarly consensus on what the political tea-leaves said at that point.
--Jerzy•t 05:36, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
I removed the 'popular culture' section (see dif : 379526171), it was largely unreferenced and added little to the encyclopedic value of the article. -- GateKeeper (talk) @ 00:01, 19 August 2010 (UTC)
A few notes on how we got here and where we're going:
salaam alaikum, groupuscule (talk) 16:13, 28 June 2013 (UTC)
"Government proclamations, particularly Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 15 and the Freedmen's Bureau Act of early 1865." Yes, go on, what about them? --Khajidha (talk) 11:48, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
There is a statement in the overview:
What in the world does one thing (redistribution of land) have to do with "race mixing"? Nothing. I'll just go ahead an answer that for you. Abolitionists may well have (and many did) promote the distribution of land and "wealth", that is a stand-alone issue. How did that sentence ever make it into this article?
An underlying fear of race-mixing (Miscegenation) was certainly a part of the discord that drove America into a state a civil war - but that had nothing to do with the Abolitionist promotion of land re-distribution after the war. Those issues simply are NOT linked. At all.
This statement needs to be revised or removed, or I will do it myself the next time I visit this poorly written, yet very important page.
Comments / discussions re: my thesis statement are not required , since it is factual Prima facie. Note to the editors: Let's try harder to write better articles in the future and be better stewards of WP, shall we?
I have captured this page as it is today. I'm not going to get into an "edit war" with anyone regarding this writing error. War implies a contest of some kind. Not going to be a contest, since I am right. I'm flexible on most issues, but there is only one truth - and facts are not open to debate. Please, please try harder in the future to keep WP accurate and free of clumsy "sentences" such as the one I've pointed out herein. Cheers. 98.194.39.86 (talk) 16:52, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 17 August 2023 and 1 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): 2ndnotion (article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by 2ndnotion (talk) 19:04, 12 September 2023 (UTC)
"for the 470 plantation" What is a "470 plantation"? I think it should be "for the 470-acre plantation," but I don't know. 2600:6C67:1C00:5F7E:C58A:2D50:A264:EA29 (talk) 00:34, 3 October 2023 (UTC)
pls? 2601:2C1:8A00:990:D1DD:6A67:E900:58B (talk) 00:11, 25 April 2024 (UTC)
Special Field Orders No. 15 should be merged to here, as they are overlapping topics (and merging them wouldn't make a clunky article). LR.127 (talk) 05:29, 2 August 2024 (UTC)