Editing Forty acres and a mule (section)

==Colonization and homesteading==
During and after the war, politicians, generals and others envisioned a variety of colonization plans that would have provided real estate to black families. Although the [[American Colonization Society]] had been colonizing more people in Liberia and receiving more donations (almost one million dollars in the 1850s), it did not have the means to respond to mass emancipation.<ref name=Dyer55>{{harvnb|Dyer|1943|p=55}}</ref>

A 2020 study contrasted the successful distribution of free land to former slaves in the [[Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)|Cherokee Nation]] with the failure to give free land to former slaves in the Confederacy. The study found that even though levels of inequality in 1860 were similar in the Cherokee Nation and the Confederacy, former black slaves prospered in the Cherokee Nation over the next decades. The Cherokee Nation had lower levels of racial inequality, higher incomes for black people, higher literacy rates among black people, and greater school attendance rates among black people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Melinda C. |date=2019-06-26 |title='The Righteous and Reasonable Ambition to Become a Landholder': Land and Racial Inequality in the Postbellum South |journal=The Review of Economics and Statistics |volume=102 |issue=2 |pages=381–394 |doi=10.1162/rest_a_00842 |issn=0034-6535 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Foreign colonization plans===
Lincoln had long [[Abraham Lincoln and slavery#Colonization|supported colonization]] as a plausible solution to the problem of slavery, and pursued colonization plans throughout his presidency.<ref>{{harvnb|Lockett|1991|p=430}} "Lincoln held the strong belief that colonization would accomplish a twofold objection: rid the nation of racial strife by ridding the nation of its freedmen, which in effect would render America a white man's country (Richardson, 1907, p. 153)."</ref><ref name=Magness4 /> In 1862, Congress approved $600,000 to fund Lincoln's plan for colonizing blacks "in a climate congenial to them", and granted Lincoln broad executive powers to orchestrate colonization.<ref name=Magness4 /><ref>{{harvnb|Lockett|1991|pp=431–432}} "This act made Lincoln the sole authority on all plans involving government-financed colonization, as well as on how the money would be spent. It pushed Lincoln far ahead in the field of those who had dedicated themselves to the colonization of the Negro, reaching back to Thomas Jefferson."</ref> Lincoln immediately created an Emigration Office within the Department of the Interior and instructed the State Department to acquire suitable land.<ref name=Magness4>{{harvnb|Magness|Page|2011|pp=3–4}}</ref> The first [[Linconia|major plan]] considered would have sent employed free blacks as coal miners in [[Chiriquí Province]], Panama (then part of [[Gran Colombia]]). Volunteers were promised 40 acres of land and a job in the mines; Senator [[Samuel C. Pomeroy]], whom Lincoln had appointed to oversee the plan, had also purchased mules, yokes, tools, wagons, seeds, and other supplies to support a potential colony. Pomeroy accepted 500 of the 13,700 people who applied for the job. However, the plan was canceled by the end of the year, thanks to a discovery that Chiriquí's coal was of poor quality.<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|p=4}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Lockett|1991|p=433}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Page|2011}}</ref>

Like Liberia, an independent black nation, Haiti was also considered a good place to colonize freedpeople from the U.S.<ref>{{harvnb|Lockett|1991|p=432}} "Because Haiti and Liberia were black independent republics with climatic and topographical features favorable for Black people, Lincoln considered the two countries prime sites for establishing colonies ([[Nicolay & Hay]], 1890, Vol. 6, p. 168)."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Page|2011|p=314}}</ref> As the Chiriquí plan was hitting its stride in 1862, Lincoln was developing another plan to colonize the small island of [[Île à Vache]] near Haiti.<ref>{{harvnb|Page|2011|p=313}} "In fact, the president had those two projects under consideration concurrently during late 1862 and early 1863—and even the 'second wave' of imperial schemes should be understood more in reference to their longer life than to the date of their initiation. Personally, Lincoln was keen to experiment with several options and to see what worked best."</ref> Lincoln struck a deal with businessman Bernard Kock, who had obtained rights to lease the island for cultivation and wood-cutting.<ref>{{harvnb|Lockett|1991|p=436}}</ref> A total of 453 Blacks, mostly young men from the [[Tidewater region]] around occupied [[Hampton, Virginia]], volunteered to colonize the island.<ref>{{harvnb|Boyd|1959|p=51}}</ref> On April 14, 1863, they left Fort Monroe in the "Ocean Ranger".<ref name=Lockett439>{{harvnb|Lockett|1991|pp=438–439}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Dyer|1943|pp=60–61}}</ref> Kock confiscated all of the money possessed by the colonists and did not pay their wages.<ref name=Lockett439 /> Initial reports suggested dire conditions, though these were later disputed. A number of colonists died in the first year.<ref>{{harvnb|Boyd|1959|p=54}}</ref> 292 survivors from the original group remained on the island and 73 had moved to [[Aux Cayes]]; most were restored to the U.S. by a mission of the Navy in February 1864.<ref>{{harvnb|Lockett|1991|p=441}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|p=5}}</ref> Congress rescinded Lincoln's colonization authority in July 1863.<ref>{{harvnb|Boyd|1959|p=56}}</ref>

Lincoln continued to pursue colonization plans, particularly in the [[British West Indies]], but none came to fruition. The American Colonization Society settled a few hundred people in Liberia during the war, and several thousand more in the five years following.<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|p=6}}</ref>

===Domestic colonization plans===
Confederate general [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]] had proposed in 1865 before the end of the war to hire black soldiers and freedmen in constructing a railroad for the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad Company, paying them with $1 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=1|start_year=1865}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}})/day and land along the railway line.<ref name=Oubre73>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|pp=73–75}}</ref> This proposal later gained the endorsements of Sherman, Howard, Johnson, and Arkansas Governor [[Isaac Murphy]].<ref name=Hahn410>{{harvnb|Hahn|Miller|O'Donovan|Rodrigue|Rowland|2008|pp=402; document transcribed, pp. 410–411}}</ref> Howard transported several hundred freedmen from Alabama to Arkansas for work on the line. He appointed [[Edward Ord]] to supervise the project and protect the freedmen from Forrest.<ref name=Oubre73 />

===Southern Homesteading Act===
{{main|Southern Homestead Act of 1866}}
As it became clear that the pool of land available for blacks was rapidly shrinking, the Union discussed various proposals for how blacks might resettle and eventually own their own land. In Virginia, the mass of landless blacks represented a growing crisis—soon to be exacerbated by the return of 10,000 black soldiers from Texas. Concerned about a possible insurrection, Colonel Orlando Brown (head of the Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia) proposed relocating Virginia's blacks to Texas or Florida. Brown proposed that the federal government reserve 500,000 acres in Florida for colonization by the soldiers and 50,000 other free blacks from Virginia. Howard took Brown's proposal to Congress.<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|pp=81–83}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hahn|Miller|O'Donovan|Rodrigue|Rowland|2008|p=402; document transcribed, p. 410}}</ref>

In December 1865, Congress began to debate the "Second Freedmen's Bureau bill", which would have opened three million acres of unoccupied public land in Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas for homesteading.<ref>"Second Freedmen's Bureau Bill" (introduced December 4, 1865)</ref> (An amendment to allow black homesteading on public lands in the North was defeated.) Congress passed the bill in February 1866 but could not override Johnson's veto.<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|pp=84–85}}</ref> (Congress passed a more limited "Second Freedmen's Bureau Bill" in July 1866, and did override Johnson's veto.)

Howard continued to push for Congress to appropriate land for allocation to freedmen. With support from [[Thaddeus Stevens]] and [[William Fessenden]], Congress began to debate a new bill for black settlement of public lands in the South. The result was the [[Southern Homestead Act]], which opened 46,398,544.87 acres of land in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas to homesteading; initially 80-acre parcels (half-quarter section) until June 1868, and thereafter 160-acre parcels (quarter section). Johnson signed this bill and it went into effect on June 21, 1866. Until January 1, 1867, the bill specified, only free blacks and loyal whites would be allowed access to these lands.<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|pp=86–87}}</ref>

Howard, concerned about competition with Confederates that would begin in 1867, ordered Bureau agents to inform free blacks about the Homesteading Act.<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|p=81}}</ref> Local commissioners did not disseminate the information widely,<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|p=93}}</ref> and many freedpeople were unwilling to venture into unknown territory, with insufficient supplies, based only on the promise of land after five years.<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|p=149}}</ref>

Those who did attempt homesteading encountered unreliable bureaucracy that often did not comply with federal law. They also faced extremely harsh conditions, usually on low quality land that had been rejected by white settlers in years past. Nevertheless, free blacks entered about 6,500 claims to homesteads; about 1000 of these eventually resulted in property certificates.<ref>{{harvnb|Oubre|1978|p=188}}</ref>