When Andrew Johnson became president after Lincoln 's assassination , he took aggressive steps to restore the Union . On May 29 , 1865 , Johnson issued an amnesty proclamation to ordinary Southern citizens who swore loyalty oaths , promising not only political immunity but also return of confiscated property . ( Johnson 's proclamation excluded Confederate politicians , military officers , and landowners with property worth more than $ 20,000 . ) General O. O. Howard , chief of the Freedmen 's Bureau , requested an interpretation from Attorney General James Speed regarding how this proclamation would affect the Freedmen 's Bureau mandate . Speed replied on June 22 , 1865 that the Bureau Commissioner : ... has '' authority '' , under the direction of the President , to set apart for the use of loyal refugees and freedmen the lands in question ; and he is '' required '' to assign to every male of that class of persons , not more than forty acres of such lands . Howard acted quickly based on the authorization from Speed , ordering an inventory of lands available for redistribution and resisting white Southerners ' attempts to reclaim property . At its peak in 1865 , the Freedmen 's Bureau controlled 800,000 – 900,000 acres of plantation lands previously belonging to slave owners . This area represented 0.2 % of land in the South ; ultimately the Johnson proclamation required the Bureau to re-allocate most of it to its former owners
Lincoln 's assassination
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Forty acres and a mule