What was "40 Acres and a Mule"?

When the Civil War ended, the Union had to figure out what to do with all that confiscated rebel land. Their utterly radical decision? Give it to the newly freed slaves—up to 40 acres each (the mule part came later). Within months of the January 1865 order, 40,000 former slaves had settled onto 400,000 acres of plantation land once owned by their white masters. And then, just as quickly, it was snatched back. If Lincoln hadn't been assassinated that spring, the course of American history might have been dramatically different. But his Southern-sympathizing successor, Andrew Johnson, wasted no time reversing the order, expelling the former slaves and giving the land back to the country's sworn enemies.

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