Field Order 15 Research Paper

While initially successful, the moment that President Johnson confiscated the land given to us, the Freedmen, under Sherman's Field Order 15, Reconstruction failed. This land should have remained the rightful property of the Freedmen as a gesture of concession, validity of African American rights, and just punishment to white planters.
By confiscating land given to us under Sherman’s Field Order 15, President Johnson prioritized relations between white people over rights for black people and encouraged white people to regain their position of power. With the removal of this order, Planters began to be pardoned at an extremely rapid rate and returned to land that was now inhabited by freed black people. This sent a clear message to blacks and whites alike - white planters’ lives will consistently be valued above black people’s. Following the initiation of this act, another debilitating order for our community was enacted, “It was the order of the
This would fairly penalize white planters for their involvement in slavery, remove the institutions that slavery revolved around, and allow freedmen to effectively take part in the American economy as equal and independent citizens. Education is another important aspect of equality, as it allows us to communicate with white people more effectively and prove that we deserve rights. Booker T. Washington, one of the most influential educators of our time, encourages, “African Americans should attend school, learn skills, and establish a solid footing in agriculture and the trades, Industrial, not classical, education should be their goal. Blacks should … should, in short, adopt the standards of the white middle class” (Brinkley 374). By adopting these standards, African Americans will develop the skills to contribute to America’s industrial economy as