REPARATIONS FOR U.S. FREEDMEN

A CASE FOR RESTITUTION AND REDRESS FOR DESCENDANTS OF CHATTEL SLAVERY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT • RESTITUTION • CLOSURE

The U.S. chattel slavery system committed crimes against humanity, human trafficking, fraud, genocide, and other global human rights violations. Statements issued at the end of slavery by the federal government of the United States of America amount to an admission of guilt and obligation to pay reparations. Subsequent actions made by the U.S. government are consistent with conspiracies to destroy and suppress evidence [1][2]

CRIMES & MOTIVES:

The colonies that became the United States of America had no legal authority to enter into the slave trade or hold enslaved people as chattel. They successfully used slavery to establish global trade partners and achieve financial independence. That financial independence eventually enabled political independence from England. The financial advantages from slavery accelerated the growth of the U.S., and the residual systems and policies subsequently made the country the global superpower it is today. It also created successful businesses, generational wealth, and political power for many families.[1]

The people enslaved in the U.S. chattel system were legally released, labeled U.S. Freedmen, and promised reparations. However, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln prevented the reparations from being delivered as planned. Instead reparations were paid to Southern slave and land owners. Descendants of U.S. Freedmen still have not received the reparations they deserve.

QUICK STATS

• <$0 U.S. median net wealth for Black Americans is predicted to become less than nothing in roughly 30 years. [>]

• >40% U.S. homeless population is disproportionately Black. [>]

• >30% U.S. incarcerated population is disproportionately Black. [>]

• >50 years U.S. diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have failed to deliver economic and social equality for half a century. [>]

The United States of America owes a debt to descendants of U.S Freedmen:

• Compensation for the early contributions made by enslaved people

• Redress for the atrocities suffered during slavery

• Restitution for forced servitude of generations treated as chattel

• Restitution for systematic oppression of generations following the 13th Amendment

Programs that are not reparations:

HISTORY OF PERFORMATIVE POLICY

For hundreds of years there have been a variety of social programs and laws created in the U.S. at federal, state, and local levels that acknowledge inequities for people enslaved in the U.S. None of these programs or laws actually address the core issues or deliver reparations to the victims of the U.S chattel slavery system.

Furthermore, these programs and laws have been broadly unsuccessful and in several cases detrimental to the socioeconomic status of descendants of U.S chattel slavery, occasionally extending to people of color at large. Furthermore, the successes that descendants on U.S Freedmen have achieved can more accurately be attributed to the removal of unfair barriers than the application of assistance programs.

While some of the racist ideology that emboldened slave holders also caused discrimination toward non-African people with dark skin, the core concepts hold particular distain for people who have also been generationally oppressed. Through learned behavior, some people justify reserving their highest levels of hatred, oppression, and discrimination specifically for descendants of U.S. Freedmen.

To date, there has never been a single government program that was successfully executed to advance the relative position of U.S. freedmen or their descendants, nor have they been provided with redress and restitution.

• 3/5ths COMPROMISE - 1787

  During the American Revolution, the colonies expressed serious opposition to being without political representation. To maintain legal control over enslaved people and simultaneously address the hypocrisy of newly defined American ideals, Southern politicians gave enslaved people voting representation but not voting rights. By defining them as 3/5 of a person, they were not considered citizens, but they did officially contribute to political influence. [1]

• SPECIAL FIELD ORDER 15 / 40 ACRES - 1865

  Abraham Lincoln ordered 400,000 acres of land to be set aside for redistribution to U.S. Freedmen. However, shortly after Robert E. Lee surrendered on behalf of the Confederate army, Lincoln was assassinated by a group of racists and Southerners. Distribution of the land was immediately prevented by the new President of the U.S., Andrew Johnson. [1][2][3]

• 13th AMENDMENT (People as Private Property)

  The primary effect of the 13th Amendment (1866) was not to free people who had been enslaved; it was to establish a legal limitation that excluded all people from something that could be owned as private property. By doing so, the U.S. government was able to limit the political power that slave holders had gained from the 3/5ths Compromise.

Prior to the civil war, the legal definition of private property was the primary debate between Northern and Southern views. The 13th Amendment allowed slavery to remain legal throughout the United States as punishment for any case in which a person had been convicted of any crime.

Other forms of slavery have also gone unpunished https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Sugar

• 14th AMENDMENT (Citizenship)

  The 14th Amendment did not repair anything.

• https://www.jstor.org/stable/2207801

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Southern politician technically represented enslaved people (3/5) and their holders (5/5), even though people who were enslaved were considered property and could not vote.

as property land and slave holders had the right to.

http://www.civilwarcauses.org/quotes.htm

• 15th AMENDMENT (Voting Rights)

  The right to vote is pointless without the protection to do so safely. Since ratification of the 15th Amendment on February 3, 1870, over 6 . prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

  However, it didn’t prevent aggressive and often violent methods of voter suppression. In 1946, Senator Theodore “The Man” G. Bilbo was successfully re-elected after appealing to white supporters with public calls for attacks on descendants of U.S. Freedmen.

“I call on every red-blooded white man to use any means to keep the niggers away from the polls[;] if you don’t understand what that means you are just plain dumb.”

“
http://www.mississippihistory.org/sites/default/files/bilbo.pdf

• DESEGREGATION

Advocates

• AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

  Affirmative action has nothing to do with reparations. It is simply a set of policies that many governments around the world have customized to address discrimination in their regions.

  In America, affirmative action benefits white women most, with all minority groups considered proportionally and intersectionality ignored. Similarly, white men replace Asians in institutions and employers that are disproportionately Asian, often amongst the most sought after organizations in America.
  

• SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMS

  Scholarship programs only help individuals, which encourages feelings of elitism and promotes division. Furthermore it fosters assimilation and acceptance of the residual systems of oppression.
  

• FOOD & HOUSING SUBSIDIZING

  Programs that are consistent with terms of slavery (i.e. free access to food and housing without ensuring access to gainful employment) are not reparations. Thus, the programs represent little more than federal, state, or local ownership of oppressed people, instead of private ownership.
  

• PRISON & POLICING REFORM

  Issues with the modern U.S. prison and policing systems are part of the residual systems of oppression created to extend de facto slavery. Any improvements to them are simply reduction of injustice and fall short of purification. Furthermore, the oppression furthered by federal, state, or local law enforcement, is deserving of reparations.

DIVERSITY PROGRAMS

EQUALITY PROGRAMS

INCLUSION PROGRAMS