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

Many Americans' understanding of the idea of reparations for African slavery in the U.S. stems from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's field order that slaves made refugees by his march through the South be given parcels of Charleston's former sea island plantations and one of a surplus of Army mules. [more inside]
posted by toodleydoodley on Apr 24, 2010 - 58 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

Chicago moves toward reparations: When vying for city contracts, companies must search their records and disclose whether they've profited from slavery.
posted by aladfar on Oct 3, 2002 - 49 comments

There has been alot in the news about Slave Reperations lately. Friday while at the store, the register clerk started to ask me about my family history and then accused me of being a descendant of her ancestor's slave master and told me i owed her. What type of scam is this?
posted by crackheadmatt on Aug 18, 2002 - 135 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

Did you know about the "African-American Slavery Reparations" tax credit? (Neither did I.)
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jan 24, 2002 - 37 comments

Here's your reparations money, now shut up! Another POV in the slavery reparations debate: From the conservative National Review, an argument that paying off black Americans would be worth it "if they could no longer play the race card."
posted by darren on Mar 20, 2001 - 24 comments