Preview

U.s. Slavery Reparations

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
958 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
U.s. Slavery Reparations
Should African Americans Receive Reparations?

Racism and hate have played a major role in United States history. These words have been the fuel behind slavery, inhuman treatment, and genocides. The Kosovo, Native Americans, Japanese, and African Americans are some of the prominent races that have been affected by racism and hate. The U.S. have given reparations to the victims of Kosovo, Native American, and Japanese, but no reparation have been given to African Americans. For five hundred years, the U.S. forced African Americans into slavery. As an African American woman in 2013, the question “ What ever happen to reparations for African Americans?” lingers in my mind. Don’t we deserve reparation just as the Native Americans and Japanese got? Generations of African Americans were force into slavery. For that African Americans should receive reparations, to compensate for their many years in slavery the inhuman treatment, and discrimination. Slavery was basically forced free labor by the Europeans. An estimated seven to six million Africans were shipped to North America in the 18th century alone (Hutchinson, 1). During slavery slaves would be beaten, killed and raped (“Reparation for Slavery”). There was no penalty for this because a t the time slaves were not looked at as inhuman (“Reparation for Slavery”). This treatment lasted for years, an estimated five hundred. Five hundred years of forced labor, unjust, inequality, death, and inhuman treatment.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in its final form on January 1, 1863(Chrisman, 1). Which demanded the freedom of slaves. But even after that African American faced many more years of hardships and discrimination. Especially for African Americans who inhabited southern states of the U.S. Southern whites often responded to African Americans with violence, and federal troops were needed to preserve order and protect blacks in several incidents. But



Cited: Chrisman, Robert. Ten reason: A Response to David Horowitz. umass.edu. University of Massachusetts. The Black Scholar, April 2, 2001. Web. 19 April. 2013. Craemer, Thomas. "Framing Reparations." Policy Studies Journal 37.2 (2009): 275-298. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. Hutchinson, Earl. Ten Reason For U.S. Slavery Reparations. Monito.net. Albion Monitor, April 9, 2001. Web. 19 April. 2013. Reparation for Slavery? Crf-usa.org. Constiual Rights Foundation. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 April. 2013. “ Slavery in America.” history.com. n.p. n.d. web.25.2013 “ Slave Trade.” Library.thinkquest.org. n.p. n.d. web. 19. 2013 Sundquist, Eric J. "The Japanese--American Internment." American Scholar 57.4 (1988): 529. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. Trosper, Ronald. Proverty and Race Reasearch Council. PRRC Publication. 1994 Dec. Web. 19 April. 2013 “ When Did Slavery Really End in the United Stated?” law.marquette.edu. Hylton Gordon J., n.d web .25 .2013

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Convention. If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South. Have we no tendency to the latter condition? Let any one who doubts carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination-piece of machinery, so as to speak-compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what work the ma- chinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted, but also let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidence of design and concert of action among its chief architects, from the beginning. The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State constitutions, and from most of the national territory by congressional prohibition. Four days later commenced the struggle which ended in repealing that congressional prohibition. This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first…

    • 3215 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Randall, Vernellia R. (2004, April 11). Internment of Japanese Americans in Concentration Camps. Retrieved April 17, 2014, from http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/intern01.htm#Korematsu…

    • 1908 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this article, “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. He talks about how the African Americans were treated even after the Civil War. Mr. Coates talks about the housing issues African Americans faced with landlords, mobs, and neighbors. He shows examples of this in many different ways, which even happened in more recent years.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Now in both cases of reparations, that of the African Americans and women, there is a reparation based on the wage gap. The wage gap between African Americans and white Americans is not changed since nineteen-seventies partly due…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Both “The Case for Reparations” and The Marrow of Tradition, examine the issue of reparations in return for the egregious injustices committed in the form of slavery by our predecessors. The cornerstone of this problem is that after years of generational oppression and discrimination, what form will this reparation end up taking? A reparation that is based on doling out mere financial support for those that endured the brutality of slavery is unreasonable. It is an insult to the blacks that were subjugated in the slave economy of the past under the guise of racial superiority. Simply treating this issue in a one-dimensional viewpoint that can be solved through a monetary basis will not suffice and is stripping from it the aspect of humanity.…

    • 1885 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    How will you feel if someone take credit hard work, family or not family. Even after the success of the civil rights movement. Black American treated like to believe that are still getting unfair. And THey call this “ Legacy of Slavery”. Slave reparation became an important topic because people believe that the government should go back into slavery time and find out who should get paid. (Olson, Walter.)Slavery reparation is unnecessary in the 21st century because, the government don’t have enough money, have no idea to find out if people should get paid, and paying someone for someone else hard work.…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    More than one hundred years have passed since slavery ended, fifty-five years since the repeal of Jim Crow laws. Historical Civil Rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X have given birth to a new generation of racial equality activists such as Colin Kaepernick, Michelle Alexander, and Barack Obama. New leaders in the 21st century say that reparations, or “the making of amends for a wrong one has done by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged,” as defined by Webster's Dictionary, are necessary because African American citizens are still affected by the unjustifiable treatment of black people during the 1800’s. Slavery’s drastic toll on the black community encourages social justice groups…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Reparations have been used before in many situations, and have both worked and failed. These slavery reparations should take a social policies form. If someone were to give individual checks to all the descendants of slaves there would be many issues, how would they find all the descendants of the millions of slaves born and brought into the United States , and where would the money needed come from? The most effective way is a “ financial reparation should be paid not to individuals but lumped together into a fund dedicated to improving the lives of African Americans today”. They should do this because they do not know what these individuals will spend the money on and if the goal is to help them, the most effective way is to have a fund.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Emancipation Proclamation took place in 1863 under the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. This document declared that all slaves in the south of America were free. For some people this was a negative event because they no longer had the right to hold slaves, but for the slaves this was life changing. This document later led to the freeing of slaves…

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Decades upon decades of inhumane and demoralizing treatment. Countless lives lost, and thousands of families split apart. Worked endlessly for hours, and even days on end. Deprived of food, water, and shelter. Spat on. Whipped. Beaten until chunks of skin were left hanging almost by a thread, with blood covering backs and the grass below. Beautiful human faces scarred and bruised. Slavery was evil, just as racism is to this very day. Even after the emancipation of African American slaves, white men in the south still continue to treat them as poorly and abusively as a stray dog. These emancipated slaves and their families deserve a fighting chance to make a living as free black men. They are no longer slaves, they are now the equals to white men. Former southern slave owners have no right to claim this land, after the way that they hurt all of these African Americans.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is important to note that in the event that it cannot be determined whether a…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout my younger years I’ve always been taught about slavery. But never have I ever heard of reparations until now. Even as you grow older things you’ve never heard of began to surface. But even though reparations are for something good, money isn’t always the solution for everything, especially for people who have spent decades working for free. What about white Americans work for African Americans for free? How about whites go pick cotton, grow rice, or tobacco? Or should we crack the whip over white people? Then would whites call us master or would we be known as a cracker instead of a “nigger”. Those things run through my mind as I think of reparations. But Robert L. Allen thinks otherwise. He says “reparations provide a framework for the redistribution of wealth within the economy, and thereby moving towards…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Defending Slavery

    • 2485 Words
    • 10 Pages

    In his book “Defending Slavery”, Finkelman presents a collection of historical documents written by politicians, lawyers, clergymen and an anonymous author supporting proslavery. In the first part of the book, Finkelman, gives a briefly introduction to the arguments supporting pro slavery in America during the Antebellum. The thoughts defending slavery have in common that slavery in America was justified based on racial aspects.…

    • 2485 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    When it comes to reparations it can be a touchy subject, due to the fact that people have so many different opinions on this. Although there are many opinions a vast majority of the population believes that black people should be given reparations. Not even just reparations for slavery but, reparations for decades of inequality and civil abuse. Reparations should be given to many races not just African Americans. African Americans have went through a mass amount of suffering for centuries, mental and physical stress.…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Few groups in American history have suffered worse treatment than African Americans (Monroe p.152).” The only group of people that have arguably suffered worse treatment is the Native Americans and they receive reparations. This precedent is one of the main reason I believe African Americans that are descendants of slaves should receive reparations.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays