Johnson Revokes Freedpeople's Land on Edisto Island

Sherman's Field Order No. 15 (Jan. 1865) had settled ~40,000 freedpeople on 400,000 acres of coastal SC and GA. Johnson pardoned ex-Confederates and ordered the land restored. Bureau Commissioner Howard delivered the news at Edisto Island in October 1865. Freedpeople formally petitioned Johnson and were denied, foreclosing the structural remedy that might have made emancipation economically meaningful.