Denial of lands to freed slaves after US Civil War
Free weekly newsletter. 1st & 3rd Saturdays each month, by 7 a.m. East Coast US time. Topic: The Hidden, Real Reason for the US-Viet Nam War.
2d & 4th Saturdays. Topic: Unrebutted facts in The 1619 Project book (2021).
Some prior editions of this newsletter show a common pattern of greed and racism in early US colonial activity in Viet Nam and in the US. So, to understand greed and racism in the US, this newsletter on the 2d and 4th Saturday presents some facts marshaled in The 1619 Project book (2021).[i]
Fact. In 1865, the US Civil War freed 4 million Black people from slavery, but nearly all were denied land ownership. The US government even denied farmland to them that had been confiscated from Confederate rebels who had fought against the US. The government returned the land to the rebels.[ii]
Fact. In the post-Civil War years, without adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical care, Black people died in much larger numbers than white people.[iii]
Fact. During 1868–1934 the government gave free land to white people under the Homestead Act of 1862, but denied land to most black people. The lands were generally in tracts of 160 acres. Today, about 20 percent of white people have ancestors who received land under the Homestead Act.[iv]
Homestead Act Commemorative Stamp, 1962. Institute for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University Libraries, ND.
Fact. The land denials contributed to a wealth gap today. A 10-to-1 average wealth gap (reported in 2021) exists in the US between white families and black families.[v]
The scholar Henry Louis Gates writes, “Try to imagine how profoundly different the history of race relations in the United States would have been . . . had the former slaves actually had access to the ownership of land, of property; if they had had a chance to be self-sufficient economically, to build, accrue and pass on wealth.[vi]
Comment. Some aspects of the wealth gap are noticeable to schoolchildren. Thus, some children would erroneously think that the gap reflects white superiority and black inferiority, unless (in age-appropriate curriculum) they are taught the real cause.
[i] Comparing racism in colonial Viet Nam and US. https://briandroesch.substack.com/p/comparing-violence-that-enabled-early?s=w
Hannah-Jones, N., Roper, Caitlin, Silverman, Ilena, Silverstein, Jake, & New York Times Company. (2021). The 1619 Project: A new origin story (First ed.). New York: One World.
[ii] Freed slaves, land denied. The 1619 Project, pp. 458–62.
[iii] Deaths. The 1619 Project, p. 389.
[iv] Homestead Act denial of land. The 1619 Project, p. 464, citing Williams, T. (2000). The Homestead Act: A major asset-building policy in American history (CSD Working Paper No. 00-9). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development, pp. 8–10.
[v] Wealth gap, 10-to-1 (The 1619 Project, p. 470); 12-to-1 (Color of Money, p. 249).
[vi] Gates quote. The 1619 Project, p. 462.