Why did landowners want freedmen to remain in the same area?

When the war ended three months later, many freed African Americans saw the “40 acres and a mule” policy as proof that they would finally be able to work their own land after years of servitude. Owning land was the key to economic independence and autonomy.

Instead, as one of the first acts of Reconstruction, President Andrew Johnson ordered all land under federal control to be returned to its previous owners in the summer of 1865.

The Freedmen’s Bureau, created to aid millions of former slaves in the postwar era, had to inform the freedmen and women that they could either sign labor contracts with planters or be evicted from the land they had occupied. Those who refused or resisted were eventually forced out by army troops.

in 1862, president lincoln's emancipation proclamation opened the door for african americans to enlist in the union army. although many had wanted to join the war effort earlier, they were prohibited from enlisting by a federal law dating back to 1792.

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