The reason that the economic and political trajectory of
the South never changed, even though slavery was
abolished and black men were given the right to vote, was
because blacks’ political power and economic
independence were tenuous. The southern planters lost the
war, but would win the peace. They were still organized and
they still owned the land. During the war, freed slaves had
been offered the promise of forty acres and a mule when
slavery was abolished, and some even got it during the
famous campaigns of General William T. Sherman. But in
1865, President Andrew Johnson revoked Sherman’s