• Background: 4 types of compensation
• Debate: Unrealistic v. The need to combat the lasting effects of slavery
• Recent Developments: 9 lawsuits up until 2002

Background

• In the United States, the debate often centers on events immediately following the end of the Civil War. Union Civil War General Sherman, in his Special Field Orders, No. 15 of 1865, effectively set aside 400,000 acres of land in Georgia and South Carolina to 40,000 freed slaves. The Order was rooted in necessity; with a massive amount of freed slaves without owners and homes and the once Confederate owned land now vacant, it only made sense to 'give' the land away to those who needed it most. With the assassination of President Lincoln and Johnson's rise to office, the land was given back to its previously White owners. Effort was made in 1876 by Thaddeus Stevens to give the land back to the freed slaves, but to no avail.
• Debate on slavery reparations oftentimes discusses four types of compensation: government payments, private payments, land compensation and social services, some more realistic than others. Government payments would not be limited only to the United States; if the estimated 100 trillion dollars would be distributed to descendants of slaves for the 222,505,049 hours of forced labor their ancestors toiled through between 1619 and 1865 (Source: Harper's Magazine), the US would only pay part.
• Regardless of possible solutions, the debate on reparations for slavery is often ignored due to its legal complexity.

Debate

• Reparations are unrealistic given the legal and situational complexity.
• The effects of slavery are still felt today.

Recent Developments

• Private payments have made some legal ground in the US. By 2002, nine lawsuits were filed in the country targeting private companies that played a role in the slave trade, including Aetna Inc., which has dealt in life insurance since 1850. Brown University, JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia, and the Southern Baptist Convention have all apologized for their role.