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Tracking the Claims From Slavery
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By Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs
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March to June 1865: The newly formed Freedmen's Bureau is authorized to distribute 40-acre tracts from abandoned plantations to "every male citizen, whether refugee or freedman." But by April, after the assassination of President Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee takes office and reverses the efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau and returns confiscated land to former slaveowners and encourages freedmen and women to work for the plantation owners. 1890 to 1920s: William Vaughan, a white Democrat from Alabama, promotes the idea of a pension for ex-slaves. He pushes to introduce a bill in Congress in 1890 and later organizes groups around the country to push for the bill's passage. His efforts spawned several "pension organizations," and a climate of fraud in which many Blacks were duped into donating money to the groups. Eventually the government prosecuted several of the fraudulent groups and the pension movement died. |
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