Special Field Order 15 reserved a large area of the southern Atlantic coast for freed slaves, redistributed land, and encouraged them to join the Union Army. General Sherman issued the order to address the problem of what to do with freed slaves. The order confiscated land and divided it into 40-acre parcels for black families. Brigadier General Rufus Saxon administered the plan. The order was repealed by President Andrew Johnson after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The order is often used as a precedent in court cases involving reparations for the descendants of slaves.
Special Field Order 15 was actually a series of Special Field Orders issued on January 16, 1865, under a single numerical designation. These field orders reserved a huge portion of the southern Atlantic coast for the exclusive settlement of freed slaves, established a land redistribution administrator, and encouraged freed slaves to join the Union Army. While the order didn’t last long, having been repealed in the fall by President Andrew Johnson following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, many people regard it as a landmark in American history, and it is often used as a precedent in court cases involving involve reparations for the descendants of slaves.
These field orders were issued by General William Tecumseh Sherman after meeting with 20 prominent black religious leaders in Savannah, Georgia. Special Field Order 15 was a response to a very real problem, the question of what to do with the untold numbers of freed slaves in the American South. Many of these people had joined Sherman’s March to the Sea, and he was unable to care for them and didn’t know what to do with them. Order 15 established a method of dealing with freed slaves while also punishing the South.
Under this order, lands between Charleston and the Saint John’s River in Florida were confiscated 30 miles (48 kilometers) inland and divided into 40-acre (16.18 ha) parcels. Black families were entitled to one package each. Subsequently, General Sherman ordered the Army to lend mules to families to work the land, leading to the widespread use of the phrase “40 acres and a mule” in the American South. Of course, this land was already owned and occupied, mostly by rice planters, but Sherman had planned to expel them to make way for resettlement.
Special Field Order 15 also specified that Brigadier General Rufus Saxon would administer the plan and deal with the different issues involved, ranging from land confiscation to creating new deeds for black landowners. This series of field orders was just one of many designed to address the cascading problems associated with Reconstruction as Americans attempted to rebuild a country torn apart by Civil War.
Had this order remained in place, it would certainly have been a radical legacy. The thought of confiscating and redistributing land might seem as suspicious as communism to most modern Americans, even in the context of reparations, and the character of that region of the United States would no doubt be markedly different. As it stands, several people attempted to sue the US government for reparations related to slavery, arguing that Special Field Order 15 indicated a bona fide belief in reparations by the government.
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