User:Ceremonious/sandbox

United States
Following the U.S. Civil War, many blacks and military officials considered land reform vital. The downfall of the Confederacy emancipated millions, but few former slaves had the means to exercise real autonomy. Land, even at depressed post-war prices, was difficult for African Americans to procure. At the same time, with southern wealth the result of centuries of forced labor, blacks nationwide called for property on the basis of just reparations. Politically, redistribution carried the support of Radical Republicans. But opposing any grants to blacks were racist moderates and conservatives, along with a White House committed to restoration. Given national divisions, reform efforts were varied but short-lived.

Many African Americans believed property was critical to erasing slave-oriented social order. In addition to speaking out, some demanded plots and moved into their master’s plantations by force. Others bought land collectively, or squatted on what was undeveloped. Throughout war and Reconstruction, the presence of Federal troops provided a platform for agricultural policy. In 1865, William Tecumseh Sherman issued Field Order 15, taking coastal land in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and dividing it into 40-acre plots for black settlement.

In March, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau, whose commissioner had authority to redistribute confiscated or abandoned southern land. The Bureau held 850,000 acre, and key directors pushed for its settling with former slaves. When President Andrew Johnson began to pardon Confederates and restore their property, Commissioner Oliver O. Howard issued Circular 13. The order instructed agents to establish 40-acre parcels with haste. Johnson rescinded the order, and an overwhelming majority of Bureau land returned to its previous owners.

The final reform attempts of Reconstruction occurred within state governments. In South Carolina, a land commission was established, which purchased property and sold it on long-term credit. Other state Republicans utilized new tax systems, penalizing large estates, to seize and divide land and stimulate black ownership. This indirect method achieved little, as taxes were repaid and lands were reclaimed. Of property not redeemed, much was exploited by investors.

Ultimately, Reconstruction was discounted as 'Socialism' by moderates committed to free-market transformation, a popular new line of political attack levied against the likes of Boss Tweed and Benjamin F. Butler (politician) alike. Radicals began to fall even earlier, with the failure of Johnson’s impeachment. Liberal Republicans, eroding the era's political landscape, called for an immediate end to “black barbarism”. White supremacist violence and financial panic weakened Reconstruction to the breaking point. With the Compromise of 1877, it was finished.