Were African-Americans ever given reparations for slavery?

by apocalypse_later_
vpltz

Yes, to a very limited extent, but it isn't necessarily what we would think of as reparations today.

Official 'Reparations:' The concept of "40 Acres and a Mule," actually has its roots in Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 of 1865. This order encouraged and permitted resettlement of freed slaves along an area of the coast of the Eastern United States including many islands colloquially referred to today as the "Sea Islands," although there were multiple different settlements. The acreage was to be divided in 40 acre plots. How this worked out and disputes over the alleged abandoned lands is a story unto itself that does not directly relate to your question, but is interesting nonetheless.

Private 'Reparations:' There are limited examples of whites giving lands to their former slaves with no money in return. It is much less common than the Lost Cause myth would have one believe. However, one example that comes to mind is a Sweedish immigrant to Texas named Swante Mangus Swenson, who ultimately deeded some of his land holdings to some of his former slaves. Swenson was, according to some accounts, never comfortable with the concept of slavery, and only a reluctant slave master. It was believed the freedmen would form a community there, but they really did not, and some had scattered from the area by the time Swenson gave them the land, which forms the basis of a geographical place called "Judyville," in Colorado County, Texas, which today is just a few houses and a cemetery. More often but still not at tremendous frequency, slaveholders would sell some of their land holdings to their former slaves, as was the case with what became the freedmen's community of Kendleton.

Sources: Sea Islands, an Experiment in Land Redistribution (there are many sources on this); Handbook of Texas article: Kendleton, Texas; "Swente Mangus Swenson," undated biographical sketch, contained in the Swente Mangus Swenson Papers, Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, Box 2G451, the relevant page of which you may view here (google drive link; my copy) [NOTE: sources, including both undated manuscripts in this file, differ on when Swenson actually divested himself of his slaves, though he didn't deed the land until 1870, Lower Colorado Valley historian Reginia Williamson has done much research on this topic that is as yet unpubished]; Deed Records of Colorado County, Texas, Vol. N, pp. 667-671, Deed of gift from Swente Mangus Swenson to Mary Johnson, et al, January 15, 1870 (you can see the names of the former slaves, denoted as "(col)" for colored in the index to the deed records here (my photograph), and the first page of the multi-page deed record here (my photo) and a division/plat drawing from the deed here (my photo).