Yes, well said. I agree that this is not just about monetary compensation but about justice. However, since our country, did not start until Independence in 1776, I wouldn’t rule out applying to Britain and the Queen, since it was their colonies from 1619 to 1776. The queen greatly benefited and if they take responsibility for Jamaica then the owe something as well to ADOS. Floridian descendants could apply to Spain, since the first slave came in 1526 to the continental US under Spanish rule. Sure, it might not yield any money, but it is the statement that counts.
If I may, perhaps I could go one step further though. The United States did seem to have the most brutal period from 1776-1865. And also the most important, since it’s foundational documents granted civil rights to all humans, since “we find these rights to be self evident,” the natural rights of each individual. The declaration and constitution did not mention color or gender as a limiting factor. Many people in the government may have acted against the full intent of foundational documents that were “colorless”, but that represents the guilt of the people and politicians, who still repress the rights of minorities. It is the repressive brutality of the slave owners and complicit political leaders that must be recognized, those who worked against enacting those rights.
From 1876-1964 the black vote in the South was repressed almost completely, or as Senator Tillman of South Carolina bragged on the senate floor in 1900, after completion of The Edgefield Plan, “We do our best to keep every negro in our state from voting.” And he did.
They used injustice, the abuse of power, and illegal violation of the U.S. constitution from 1876 -1900, to pass laws to establish single-party white rule, impose legal segregation and enact disenfranchisement of blacks completely. These illegal actions were criminal, violations of the new 14th and 15th as well as the rights given to blacks from the foundational documents. It is the willingness of politicians to violate the law and the lack of accountability that actively repressed the rights of blacks through violence, silencing their political voice up until 1964.
It wasn’t just some slave owners, as hideous as that institution was, but the politicians running the government complicit in letting it continue and actively stopping blacks from participating. The repression of blacks didn’t end because the Civil War, the emancipation declaration, and the Southern Whites gently laid down their arms, freed their slaves and admitted defeat. The illegality was bred into the people and the politicians. It must be bred out by foundational justice and reparations.
Thank you for eloquent writings on this subject.
