06/20/2023
HEY! What Happened To The 40 Acres & A Mule That The Republicans Gave Us?
OK...WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS.......The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by the Republican controlled Congress in March 1865 to assist for one year in the transition from slavery to freedom in the South, aka the sates controlled by DEMOCRATS. The Bureau was given "the supervision and management of all abandoned lands, and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen, under such rules and regulations as may be presented by the head of the Bureau and approved by REPUBLICAN President Abraham Lincoln.
The Freedmen's Bureau was run by the War Department, and its first and most important commissioner was General O.O. Howard, a Civil War hero and supporter of REPUBLICAN President Abraham Lincoln. The Bureau's task was to help the Blacks, who lived in DEMOCRAT controlled southern states, and white DEMOCRATS make the transition from slavery to freedom. Their responsibilities included introducing a system of free labor (as opposed to slave labor) and overseeing some 3,000 schools for freed Blacks, settling disputes and enforcing contracts between the White DEMOCRAT landowners and their Black labor force, and securing justice for blacks in state courts. After the Republican President, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated; the Bureau was renewed by a Congressional bill in 1866 but was VETOED by DEMOCRAT President Andrew Johnson, who claimed it was unconstitutional. Democrat President Johnson was opposed to having the federal government secure our rights. The REPUBLICAN Congress passed the bill over his veto. White DEMOCRATS were basically opposed to blacks having any rights at all, and as a direct result of DEMOCRAT efforts, the Freedmen's Bureau lacked military force to back up its authority as the army had been quickly disbanded.
Despite staunch Democrat opposition, the Republican established Freedmen's Bureau was able to accomplish some of its goals, especially in the field of education. It established a number of colleges and training schools for Blacks, including Howard University (named for General Howard) and Hampton Institute.By June of 1865, around 40,000 freed slaves were settled on 400,000 acres parts of Georgia and South Carolina. Soon after, Democrat President Johnson reversed the order and RETURNED the land to its White former owners. Because of this, the phrase has come to represent the failure of America’s promise and the to assist Blacks. Democrats have never been a proponent of Black progress. To this day, thanks to DEMOCRATS, not a single person has ever been given the 40 acres and a mule that was promised.
If you are Black and still mad about not getting ‘your’ 40 ACRES & A MULE, you should also still be mad at the party that made sure you did not get it, and TOOK it back from the 40,000 BLACK people that did. As a Black conservative, I would have been a huge supporter of reparations back then. This was a very reasonable and measured move towards some sense of economic justice.
Republican General Howard rightly believed that the mission of the Bureau was a temporary one since he wanted to avoid Black dependency on the federal agency. He firmly believed that Blacks should obtain all their rights as quickly as possible, but failed to see that day, because the DEMOCRATS were EXTREMELY hostile. As a result, its staff was cut significantly by 1869 and it ceased operations in 1872 and our struggle continued. The Democrats opposed even this small gesture for justice and equality for BLACKS and offered us life dependency on welfare and food stamps instead. They did this with the Goal of making FREED BLACKS once again dependent upon DEMOCRATS.
Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson summed it up best when he implemented welfare saying, “I will have those ni***rs voting DEMOCRATIC for the next 200 years.”…. and THEY are doing just that. For this reason and others, I refuse to vote DEMOCRAT, and in doing so, I consciously refuse to be one of his “ni***rs.”
Michael Harris
