Oscar Brown, Jr. had it right when he wrote and recorded that song live (1964's "Mr. Oscar Brown Jr. Goes To Washington.")
Scathingly sarcastic, speaking for a "man on his street" and his ancestors, he tallied up the labor, years and interest on that most egregious of broken promises, and figured to hell with the land and the mule, he'd take the money.
To wit:
"...now ain't no tellin' how much work was done by my ancestors under slavery's rule. But sure as hell, the total's got to come to at least 40 acres and a mule! Now I'm not saying this to see folks sweat, because I'm not bitter, neither am I cruel...but ain't nobody paid for slavery yet...about my acres and my mule ... 'course, interest's gotta go on, just like rent ~ I may be crazy but I ain't no fool...one hundred years of debt at 10% per year, per 40 acres and per mule! WHOOOWEE, look at that! No wonder y'all call Great Grandma a jewel! Just pay me that and call the whole thing square. Lordy, 40 acres and a mule!"
Just IMAGINE how different things could have been had that simple promise been kept. Instead, President Lincoln was assassinated, all his plans thrown out the window, freed slaves just cast aside to fend for themselves in a hostile environment, and nobody had the integrity (or courage) to carry out what would have been an excellent plan for the freed slaves: each family would receive 40 acres and a mule to give them a fair start.
Since most were deliberately kept illiterate by their former owners, the only real work they knew, and could excel at, was working the land and farming. A small colony of freed slaves was, indeed, formed and thriving on the outer banks of the Carolinas until the bastards of American government allowed the former owners (and confederate rebels/traitors) to "reclaim their land" and chase them out at gunpoint.
That single act of betrayal ~ a broken promise ~ to a people who were trapped in their native land and brought here shackled in filthy ships, to be treated like nothing more than livestock, is a stain on American history that will never go away.
Now, let us play make-believe and pretend that President Andrew Johnson (Lincoln's successor, and the most hated man in Washington DC, for good reason) did keep the broken promise, allowing these people to make their own way, with a little help from a government that wronged them so horrifically? Do you see what I see? Wow, beautiful farms, lovingly tended by decent, hard-working families and not very much 'black crime' at all...because they got a fair deal and were able to make it own their own.
How the hell can anyone know this history and not see the WHOLE picture??
And speaking of farming, America is now reaping what was sown well over a century ago. How different it could have been if a simple promise was kept, and basic human decency prevailed.
