The phrase “forty acres and a mule” stems from a special field order, No. 15, issued by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on Jan. 16, 1865. It was supposed to have given the freed people of the south a new livelihood after the Civil War.
The order set aside some 400,000 acres of confiscated land taken from the Confederate landowners from Savannah, Georgia and along the coast of Florida to be divided into 40-acre plots and given to the freed families, plus a mule to work the land. The mules would come from surplus mules used during the war.
This might have been a good plan, but it didn’t work out even though a lot of freed families had already settled on the land. Seems when President Abraham Lincoln got assassinated, President Andrew Johnson quickly returned the land to the Confederate landowners, and many freed families were evicted from their new homes by force.
While Sherman’s order didn’t last long, the mule, which has existed for a long while, is still on the scene all over the world — although not as many as at one time.
A mule is a hybrid animal — an offspring of mating a male donkey (jack) with a female horse (mare) resulting in a sterile animal. They seemed to have originated around Mesopotamia before 1000 BCE. They were used in ancient Egypt to help build the pyramids and their numbers were spread all over the known world. This being due to their disease resistance, endurance and sure-footedness. They became a mainstream animal for farming, pulling wagons or carts and for transportation on rough terrain.
Although there were many donkeys used in the Holy Land, mules were ridden by kings and princes such as David and Absalom. Mules at that time were known as the “Royal Beast.”
Illustration by Jan Pressley
In medieval Europe, when large horses were being bred to carry heavily armored knights, mules were the preferred riding animal of gentlemen and clergy.
By the 18th century, the breeding of mules had really begun to flourish in Spain, Italy and France. Larger and stronger mules were needed for bigger loads, thus the jacks and mares had to be bigger.
At this time mules were not as popular in England and the Americas, although the British did use them in India.
Seems it was our nation’s first president, George Washington, who really got the ball rolling with the use of the type of mules we have today. After the Revolution, Washington — through his older brother, the late Lawrence Washington — inherited a large plantation on the Potomac River that was later called Mount Vernon.
At his plantation, Washington first started growing tobacco, but learned it soon depleted the land of its nutrients. Later he would grow wheat, hemp, vegetables and all types of grasses, plus he maintained a large fruit orchard.
Next week, we will continue our story of the mule and how the “Father of his Country” also became known as the “Father of the American Mule” — plus I will share some of my own experiences on the south side of a north-bound mule.
J.A. Bolton is author of “Just Passing Time,” “Southern Fried: Down-Home Stories,” “Sit-A-Spell,” “Early Years at Blewett Falls,” and co-author of “Just Passing Time Together,” all of which can be purchased on Amazon or locally. Contact him at ja@jabolton.com.
