1865
Lowcountry, Georgia and South Carolina, GA · On map
General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Field Order No. 15 on January 16, 1865, redistributing approximately 400,000 acres of confiscated Confederate land to freed Black families in 40-acre plots. The Freedmen’s Bureau later granted legal title to many of these plots, marking the first major federal attempt at land redistribution to formerly enslaved people. The policy was reversed by President Andrew Johnson later in 1865, returning most land to its previous owners.
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