Mississippi Legacy: Freed Slaves Looking for a Decent Place to Live

 Forty Acres and a Mule—that’s what the rumors were about. The government was giving freedmen a little piece of property and an animal to help farm it. In Mississippi those who had grown up on the plantations had limited knowledge of ways to make a living besides growing cotton. Being set free, they supposed they could plant a little cotton patch, till it, pick it, and buy enough supplies to take care of a family. (Little compared to the plantations where they’d lived and worked as slaves.)

The truth about forty acres and a mule didn’t turn out to be what they’d heard. In 1865, General William T. Sherman issued a field order. He and other Unionists confiscated 400,000 acres of land from Confederate landowners in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Most of the land was along the coast. It was to be divided into forty-acre farms and given to former slaves. Also, he promised to give each new farmer a surplus army mule. Debates about extending the policy throughout the South were held, but Congress didn’t implement such a program. Moves to redistribute property never succeeded.

After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, President Andrew Johnson returned the land to its original owners. The broken promise became a symbol of the unfulfilled hopes of African Americans after the Civil War.

A few freedmen saved enough money to purchase small plots of land, but such events were rare. Various attempts helped African Americans acquire land. For example, the United States government established the Freedmen’s Bureau, which helped by negotiating land sales and by providing loans for land purchase. Another program involved homesteading.*

When freedmen acquired land through government programs, they often settled for small or undesirable plots, not wanted by others. For example, land in flood plains near rivers or rocky soil would be available to those inexperienced in the possibilities of failure.

*Homesteading refers to the Homestead Act of 1862, signed by Abraham Lincoln. (There had been other homestead acts also.) Citizens could claim up to 160 acres of public land if they agree to construct a home and farm the land five years.

My new novel, All Her Dreams of Love, is in the process of being published. It contains a subplot of a family of freed slaves living near the main characters of the story. B. K. and Bertie Barnes have roamed from one farm to another as they tried to survive by sharecropping. Finally, they acquire a small farm. Their situation tugs at the heartstrings of readers.

Visit Mary Lou Cheatham's Author Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

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FREE KINDLE BOOK: The Dream Bucket and Manuela Blayne

The Dream Bucket and Manuela Blayne, combined in one e-book, are free on Amazon June 26-June 30, 2023.

The Dream Bucket shows life in a simpler time–1909–and yet the Cameron family’s problems resemble those we face today when things go wrong. This novel, told from two points of view, portrays mystery, romance, grief, and courage.

  Special Recognition 

International Writers Alive Contest Winner

Audio Creation Exchange Stipend Recipient

(ACX)

Qualified Independently Published Status for Author

(QIP, ACFW)

Living in a Shack

As long as she can remember, Trudy Cameron has adored Papa, who calls her his little princess. In the night when the moon is going down, she hears her father abuse her mother in the next bedroom. All Zoe, her mother, wants to know is where he has stored the family fortune.  Trudy realizes William Cameron is less of a person than she had believed. She wishes he would die. While she is at school, the family home burns, and Papa dies in the fire.

Her mother takes Trudy and her brother Billy Jack (Will) to live in a sharecroppers’ shack, and they struggle to survive with no money. Predators, both human and animal, threaten the family. A gentle neighbor stands by. Kind people from the town of Taylorsburg help as much as Zoe will allow.

Manuela Blayne is the sequel to The Dream Bucket.

·        Tale of self-discovery, emotional, expressive, innocence versus awakening, important (from Reader’s Favorite).

·        Story of racial separation in the early twentieth century, when Black lives didn’t matter.

·        Clean and sparse but loaded with meaning.

·        Depiction of hope and love.

·        White girl’s attempt to understand how it feels to be Black.

·        Realistic portrayal of Southern poverty.

                                 

 Kirkus Reviews

The inherent tension between Trudy’s cheery worldview and Manuela’s family’s troubled lives makes for a compelling read. 

The Dream Bucket and Manuela Blayne

Mississippi Legacy: How would you live in a house like this one?

Hi. I’m a writer from Mississippi, and I’m glad to be in that category. Sometimes I write about other places, but my heart and my laptop always return to the hills of south Mississippi. I spent my early days in a simple wooden farmhouse situated between Taylorsville and Hot Coffee.

The time I write about doesn’t matter much. I like the old days. The way of life changed little from the late 1800s until World War II began. I research before writing to make sure the subtle changes from one decade to the next are accurate. The way of life of my great grandparents, grandparents, and parents slowly transformed, but in the Mississippi piney woods, we were isolated from the rest of the nation.

I ran across two interesting photos I want to share with you. These are pictures taken in 1939. In that year, the New York World’s Fair showed displays of televisions with the prediction wide audiences would soon watch them. Judy Garland starred in The Wizard of Oz. The completion of the Golden Gate Bridge was the source of a big celebration.

Today I went to the Library of Congress website and found two pictures of a residence near my hometown, Taylorsville, Mississippi. These photographs were taken in 1939. Until the coming of electricity, automobiles, decent roads, desegregated schools, and telephones, life remained primitive in our neck of the woods.

By the time I came along, some things had started to change, but modernization came slowly. I can remember knowing people ten years later living in houses like these. They left a permanent impression on my brain. As we age, our minds go back to our youth. These photos bring bittersweet memories of my childhood playmates. 

African American cabin showing grass and mud chimney and broom made of corn husks for sweeping yard. Taylorsville, Mississippi digital file from original neg. Lee Russell, Photographer  

If you haven’t read Manuela Blayne, allow me to invite you to do so. In the simplest of words, I'm trying in this little novella, to evoke some thought about how other people feel inside. For example, I'm trying to paint pictures of how it feels to be African American and how it feels to be saturated in white prejudices in the early 1900's. (It’s part of a series, but it stands alone. You can read it first.)

Available as Kindle, Audible, and Printed Book

My oldest brother, who was born on this day 98 years ago used to say, “But for the grace of God, there go I.”