Final answer:
The phrase mentions a plan for land redistribution to former slaves, known as 'forty acres and a mule,' which failed and led to the establishment of sharecropping. President Johnson's return of land to ex-Confederates and the lack of effective Reconstruction policies entrenched poverty in the South for generations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Land Redistribution After the Civil War
The phrase you’re referring to is likely “forty acres and a mule,” which symbolizes a plan for land redistribution to former slaves after the Civil War. This plan was part of the larger Reconstruction effort, aimed at reintegrating the Confederate states and establishing rights for freed slaves. One significant attempt at land redistribution was General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15, which promised land to freed slaves in Georgia and South Carolina. However, President Andrew Johnson’s opposition to the forced confiscation of property led to the return of lands to the ex-Confederates in 1866, negating any large-scale redistribution.
As a consequence of the failure to redistribute land, the sharecropping system took hold across the South. Sharecropping trapped many freed people and poor whites in a cycle of poverty and debt, working land they did not own and giving a substantial portion of their harvest to the landlords as payment. This perpetuated an agrarian economy and hindered economic development within the region, leading to long-term societal and economic ramifications.