The 1,200 formerly enslaved people who got land, then saw it taken away

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THE WEEKLY REVEAL

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Hello! In this issue:

“Forty acres and a mule” is often thought of as an unfulfilled promise. But it was real, and an even bigger betrayal than you think.
Hundreds of Haitians went to Greeley, Colorado, for a good job and found squalid living conditions and an unsafe working environment.

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST

40 Acres and a Lie Part 1

Credit: Illustration by Michael Foy

This week on Reveal, with the Center for Public Integrity and in honor of Black History Month, we’re revisiting our award-winning three-part series: 40 Acres and a Lie. We explore a reparation that wasn’t—and the wealth gap that remains.

It started with Union General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Orders, No. 15. Better known as 40 acres and a mule, the field orders implied a better life in the waning days of the Civil War. They’re often thought of as a promise that was never kept.

But 40 acres and a mule was more than that. It was real.

Over a more than two-year investigation, our partners at the Center for Public Integrity unearthed thousands of records once buried in the National Archives. In them, they found more than 1,200 formerly enslaved people who were given land by the federal government through the field orders—and then saw that land taken away.

Listen to the episode

🎧 Other places to listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A Quote to Remember

“The biggest issue is not the deportation itself. The biggest issue is what is going to happen after the deportation because most of us…we left the country, obviously, because it was very bad."

Haitian immigrants flocked to the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado, on the promise of good jobs and housing. Tchelly Moise, a Haitian with “temporary protected” immigration status and former JBS worker, is now a union representative for the workers, many of whom face the very real threat of deportation under the Trump administration.

Listen: Immigrants on the Line

In Case You Missed It

🎧 In Fallujah, We Destroyed Parts of Ourselves

🎧 After the Crash

This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Kate Howard and edited by Nikki Frick. If you enjoyed this issue, forward it to a friend. Have some thoughts? Drop us a line with feedback or ideas!

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