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The United States, reparations to slave owners in Washington...

Louverturefreedomhaiti Says...

the United States, reparations to slave owners in Washington, D.C., were paid at the height of the Civil War. On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the "Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor within the District of Columbia" into law.

It gave former slave owners $300 per enslaved person set free. More than 3,100 enslaved people saw their freedom paid for in this way, for a total cost in excess of $930,000 - almost $25 million in today's money.

In contrast, the formerly enslaved received nothing if they decided to stay in the United States.

The act provided for an emigration incentive of $100 - around $2,683 in 2021 dollars - if the former enslaved agreed to permanently leave the United States.

Similar examples of reparations going to individual slave owners can be found in the records of countries including Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil.

The French government even set an example on how the government can conduct genealogical research to determine eligible recipients.

It compiled a massive six-volume compendium in 1828, listing some 7,900 original slave owners in Saint Domingue and their French descendants.

Reparations, this Time the Other Way Around

Posted November 13 2023 at 7:20 PM

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