Many have pointed to the debilitating payments that Haiti had to make to France to compensate slave owners at the begining of the country's history as the key reason why it has been mired in poverty ever since - in stark contrast to it's neighbour the Domican Republic. Now there are calls for
France to repay $23 Billion via an
open letter. Of course, the US has had it's own
debate over this sensitive issue for a while now.
posted by helmutdog
on Aug 16, 2010 -
41 comments
Slavery Ended in the 1960s, not the 1860s The Civil War made slavery illegal, but that didn't wipe it out completely. White farmer, John Williams, forced his black overseer to
murder 11 slaves in the wake of a 1921 federal investigation. The
Dial Brothers were also convicted by the Justice Department for "African slavery" in the 1940s. In another case, a black genealogist found a
104-year-old man who claims he and his family were enslaved until the 1960s. It's not necessary to rehash the entire
reparations debate to realize that some of these post-Civil War slavery cases may finally have a day in court.
posted by jonp72
on Dec 5, 2003 -
13 comments
Recipient of largest slavery reparations claim sentanced to 3 years in jail and her father, the accountant who did the paperwork to get the refund received 13 years in jail. The article goes on to report that the IRS estimates the fraudulent reparations payout to be apporx $2.7B.
"
It was unjust because we are supposed to get reparations as black people -- just like the Jews got it. What do we get? Jail time," said family friend Margaret Roach
What do you think?
posted by cpfeifer
on Oct 24, 2003 -
70 comments
The other reparations movement. According to this article, Jack Kershaw, of Memphis, Tennessee wants to file a lawsuit which seeks redress for grievances with the federal government for gross violation of international law during the War Between the States, especially during Sherman's March to the Sea (some call it a
myth). Kershaw is a
board member of the
League of the South, a
non-racial Southern secessionist movement located in Alabama). Can a
small secession movement which publishes a magazine called the
Southern Patriot and sports a Confederate flag everywhere be taken seriously by mainstream America? I personally don't think Kershaw has a snowball's chance in hell of winning such a suit, but the idea is interesting, especially if one is trying to trace the origins of America's practice of ignoring international law and just conduct in war, which seemed to start with the un-Civil War. What do you think?
posted by insomnyuk
on Aug 19, 2002 -
45 comments
Reparations activists are going after corporations who may have had ties to or profited from the slave trade to seek financial compensation. "So far, the reparations legal team has publicly identified five companies it says have slave ties: insurers Aetna, New York Life and AIG and financial giants J.P. Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank and FleetBoston Financial Group." Of course, the article (or
the sidebar) doesn't cite anyone who may be
against the whole notion - which is possibly bias of
some sort, and seeing Johnnie Cochran
on the list of people involved doesn't exactly warm one's heart either. (
here are several other related "background" articles)
posted by owillis
on Feb 23, 2002 -
42 comments
