Where the phrase 40 acres and a mule comes from?

The phrase "40 acres and a mule" originates from the post-Civil War era in the United States, particularly from a wartime order issued by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1865. This order aimed to provide freed African American families with 40 acres of land and a mule to help them establish independent livelihoods. Although the promise was never fully realized and the land redistribution was largely reversed, the phrase has since become a symbol of the unfulfilled reparations and economic justice for African Americans.