Issued January 16, 1865, this order instructed Union Army officers to settle African-American refugees on the Sea Islands and inland: a total of 400,000 acres divided into 40-acre plots.
"[10] Considered plain and impressive as a preacher though not learned in theology, Frazier understood and could explain the doctrines of Christ quite clearly.
[18] After his official duties at First Bryan Baptist Church, Frazier was still regarded by Savannah's African-American community and fellow clergymen as a respected elder and highly knowledgeable leader.
[20] As Union armies march upon Savannah, over 17,000 formerly-enslaved African-Americans had abandoned Georgia and South Carolina plantations, following Slocum's 26,703 troops.
[21][4] Though General Slocum and his troops employed some of these newly freed refugees as pontoon builders and road-building detachments, General Sherman complained that such a large contingent of refugees could disrupt the Union Army's military operations, possibly bringing defeat to Union forces should they encounter a respectable enemy force, especially as Slocum's left wing turned its attention north to the Carolinas.
[22] This became a real concern when hundreds of African-American refugees either drowned or were captured and re-enslaved by Confederate forces during the Ebenezer Creek Massacre of December 8, 1865.
[24] On January 12, 1865 at 8:00PM, twenty African-American Baptist and Methodist ministers including Frazier, Ulysses L. Houston, William Gaines, and James D. Lynch met with General Sherman and Secretary Stanton.
[10] After Sherman and Stanton gave the group assurances of protection and provision until the refugees could be settled, Frazier answered twelve questions, eloquently addressing the desires of African-Americans fleeing chattel enslavement.
[25] According to accounts, Sherman and Stanton were impressed by Frazier's precise reason for the US Civil War, President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and its implication for African-Americans.
[26] Frazier is most known for the following "Forty acres and a mule" colloquy: Question: "State in what manner you think you can take care of yourselves, and how can you best assist the Government in maintaining your freedom."
Brother Frazier: "The way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor–that is, by the labor of the women and children and old men; and we can soon maintain ourselves and have something to spare.
[28] The orders provided for the settlement of 40,000 formerly enslaved African-Americans on a large expanse of coastal land expropriated from white landowners in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
This land stretched from Charleston, South Carolina, to northern Florida, "for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States."
Those orders, which became the basis of the claim that the Union government had promised freed slaves "40 acres and a mule", were revoked later that year by President Andrew Johnson.
[28] Soon after the historic "Forty acres and a mule" meeting, Frazier became enfeebled from age, though he did conduct some missionary work with the country churches for a few years.
When I read people repeating the popular line that the "South lost the war but won the peace," it's clear to me that they don't have Garrison Frazier in mind.
Rather, it's an argument that they need to be understood as part of an historical process—one that connects Lincoln, for example, not just to other politicians and to the northern public, but also to soldiers and officers in the field, to runaway slaves, and to black leaders like Garrison Frazier.
First Bryan ministers including Garrison Frazier and Ulysses Houston attended the nearby meeting of local black leaders with Gen. Sherman in January 1865 that resulted in Special Field Orders No.