Introduction
Slavery was one of the most influential institutions in United States history, and has relevance today because of the lack of compensation provided to slaves after the Civil War. This is an exceedingly complex issue which has caused debate over the possibility of reparations for those descended from slaves. The demand for reparations has emerged at many points in American history.
The issue first arose shortly after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 (Craemer). In celebration of the proclamation, Ralph Waldo Emerson referenced slavery reparations in his Boston Hymn (Emerson quoted in Craemer):
“Pay ransom to the owner
And fill the bag to the brim.
Who is the owner? The slave is owner,
And ever was. Pay …show more content…
The topic of reparations is still being argued and discussed today. During every session of Congress for the last 25 years, Congressman John Conyers Jr. has introduced a bill calling for a congressional study of slavery and its effects. The bill has yet to make it to the House floor despite it not being an explicit reparations bill (Coates). A United Nations panel based in Geneva also recently concluded that the history of slavery in the U.S. is enough to justify reparations, and that “racial inequality remains a serious challenge in the United States”. The panel related the recent police killings to lynchings which occurred during the Jim Crow era, showing that we might not be as removed from slavery times as many think …show more content…
A lack of concern for the subject of slavery meant that many aspects and figures were not recorded. This means that there aren’t many substantial statistics which can definitively prove how African Americans were affected. However, various later trends do show the lingering consequences of slavery and their detriment to black people. In 1865, the Black Codes were passed in the South, prohibiting freed slaves from having certain rights such as testifying against whites. Many black people were forced to become sharecroppers because of economic circumstances, and were bound to low-paying work through annual labor contracts. Sharecroppers had to give a large portion of their crops to the landowner, leaving them to live in subsistence (Recchiuti). Black people lived in the midst of hard conditions, finding refuge in their community and shared culture because of it. Surprisingly, both of these trends have generally stayed true even today. Poor African Americans have lived in ghettos since slavery, continuously blighted by facets of racism and
Slavery was one of the most influential institutions in United States history, and has relevance today because of the lack of compensation provided to slaves after the Civil War. This is an exceedingly complex issue which has caused debate over the possibility of reparations for those descended from slaves. The demand for reparations has emerged at many points in American history.
The issue first arose shortly after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 (Craemer). In celebration of the proclamation, Ralph Waldo Emerson referenced slavery reparations in his Boston Hymn (Emerson quoted in Craemer):
“Pay ransom to the owner
And fill the bag to the brim.
Who is the owner? The slave is owner,
And ever was. Pay …show more content…
The topic of reparations is still being argued and discussed today. During every session of Congress for the last 25 years, Congressman John Conyers Jr. has introduced a bill calling for a congressional study of slavery and its effects. The bill has yet to make it to the House floor despite it not being an explicit reparations bill (Coates). A United Nations panel based in Geneva also recently concluded that the history of slavery in the U.S. is enough to justify reparations, and that “racial inequality remains a serious challenge in the United States”. The panel related the recent police killings to lynchings which occurred during the Jim Crow era, showing that we might not be as removed from slavery times as many think …show more content…
A lack of concern for the subject of slavery meant that many aspects and figures were not recorded. This means that there aren’t many substantial statistics which can definitively prove how African Americans were affected. However, various later trends do show the lingering consequences of slavery and their detriment to black people. In 1865, the Black Codes were passed in the South, prohibiting freed slaves from having certain rights such as testifying against whites. Many black people were forced to become sharecroppers because of economic circumstances, and were bound to low-paying work through annual labor contracts. Sharecroppers had to give a large portion of their crops to the landowner, leaving them to live in subsistence (Recchiuti). Black people lived in the midst of hard conditions, finding refuge in their community and shared culture because of it. Surprisingly, both of these trends have generally stayed true even today. Poor African Americans have lived in ghettos since slavery, continuously blighted by facets of racism and