Article: African American Freedom and the Illusive “Forty Acres and a Mule”

Forty Acres and a Mule

Article: African American Freedom and the Illusive “Forty Acres and a Mule”

11/16/2017

Article

The African American Intellectual History Society features an article, written by Karen Cook Bell and published on November 11, 2017, titled, "African American Freedom and the Illusive 'Forty Acres and a Mule,'" which considers how, in light of failed federal land policies and lost opportunities to advance the material well-being of formerly enslaved African Americans during the Reconstruction Era, can historians reconceptualize the story of African American freedom? The article discusses the different approaches used by historians to examine the economic plight of African Americans in the postwar South, which include: economic politics, market analysis, racial exploitation and more recently property ownership. 

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The African American Intellectual History Society

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