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In America, black land has been lost Part #1

We Can and will take it BACK!

By El Pablo 1xPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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pic Credts: UGA Today

According to the results of our informal online survey, 39% of respondents said that in 2022, living or constructing a home on the land will be their main motivation for buying land.

The loss of land ownership and rights by Black people who live or work in the United States is referred to as "Black land loss" in this country.

The Homestead Act was enacted by the American government in 1862. The Act allowed certain Americans looking for farms to apply to own public domain or government-owned property. It was customary to refer to this newly purchased lands as a homestead. In total, 1.6 million homesteaders received free access to more than 160 million acres of public land, or roughly 10% of the nation's total land area.

Enslaved and free Blacks, however, could not profit from these measures until the United States abolished slavery in 1865 and the 14th amendment was passed in 1868. Approximately 6000 homesteads with an average size of 160 acres (1/4 section — 1/4 sq. mile), as reported by the National Park Service and the University of Nebraska, were given to Black people in the years immediately following the war.

Special Field Orders No. 15 was released by the Savannah Colloquy at the same time as black Americans started looking for territory to call their own. The 40 acres of land, which were on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts, were released as a result of the order. The expression "forty acres and a mule" originated from the expectation that the mules that had been idle since the war would be offered to these black Americans for use in farming.

In order to address the issue of the freed black people and their settlement in the abandoned territory, the government and President Abraham Lincoln established the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865. A Field Order known as Sherman's Land allowed a sizable number of emancipated African people to buy land in Georgia and South Carolina. Over 400,000 acres of land were colonized by about 40,000 of these freed black people. Later, it was discovered that these lands belonged to farmers who operated rice plantations.

The Freedman's Bureau had the potential to assist freed slaves in establishing themselves, but in the end, President Andrew Johnson, who overturned the Field Order, gave all the land that was supposed to be distributed to freed black people back to the confederate planters who had previously owned it, according to Linda Faye Williams.

Reasons For Land Loss

With the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, slavery was abolished, however many people's freedoms were still limited in some respects. Lack of proper papers and records was a common problem among emancipated slaves and their descendants that led to land loss. Due to a lack of or inability to generate these things, they were denied equal access to services and programs that may have helped them secure land and ensure its continued family ownership. Many recently liberated slaves lacked the identification-proving documents they needed, like birth certificates.

After being set free, they were able to receive citizenship documents because they had to apply for citizenship. However, many liberated slaves were given the same last names as their masters because this documentation was not regarded as identification proof.

Another problem was that many emancipated slaves and their ancestors had no access to legal services, making it impossible for them to create wills that would accurately transfer ownership of land and titles.

If land was not expressly bequeathed to a specific person or group of individuals, it would transfer to all of the following heirs, who would be free to sell their individual parcels of land without alerting the other heirs.

The absence of identification documents made it difficult for recently released slaves to purchase land in the years after 1865. This was one method used by white people to prevent freedmen from achieving rank.

Conflict in America. The Civil War

The Department of Agriculture was established in 1862. Despite the continuing Civil War and the enslavement of black people at this period, the judicial system continued to strongly favor white Americans. The Morill Act of 1862 was passed by the US Congress the same year. The Morill Act of 1862, sometimes known as the Land Grant Act, was designed to provide land grants to whites-only universities that offered agricultural and mechanical training. The Homestead Act of 1862, which Congress also enacted, allowed the purchase of land in the West. Along with the legislation came the promise of incentives to make buying and using land easier.

However, these advantages were exclusively available to white people; African Americans were not eligible for government assistance or land rights.

To be continued......

Ladarius "El Pablo 1x" Trotter leader of the blacksheepkid movement

REFERENCES

1. Wikipedia

2. Personal Random Notes

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About the Creator

El Pablo 1x

Independent artist, song writer, and producer born in West Memphis, AR, raised in Milwaukee, WI, I'm culturally rounded. Google me @El Pablo1x and find me on all your favorite platform

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