Posted on 05/16/2009 1:10:03 PM PDT by trek
From The History of the State of Georgia, by I. W. Avery
On January 16, 1865, Union general William T. Sherman issued his Special Field Order No. 15, which confiscated as Federal property a strip of coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina, to the St. John's River in Florida, including Georgia's Sea Islands and the mainland thirty miles in from the coast. The order redistributed the roughly 400,000 acres of land to newly freed black families in forty-acre segments....
Although Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 had no tangible benefit for blacks after President Johnson's revocation, the present-day movement supporting slave reparations has pointed to it as the U.S. government's promise to make restitution to African Americans for enslavement. The order is also the likely origin of the phrase "forty acres and a mule," which spread throughout the South in the weeks and months following Sherman's march.
(Excerpt) Read more at georgiaencyclopedia.org ...
As we see General Sherman's 1865 issuance of Special Order 15 promised freed slaves in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida 40 acres and a mule. This quite timely and just act of reparations for people who had actual been slaves was revoked by Andrew Johnson after the assassination of Lincoln. Perhaps we can take a page from General Shermans playbook and kill a number of birds with one stone.
The government by virtue of its nationalization of Chrysler and probably GM is now the not-so-proud owner of hundreds of thousands of automobiles that nobody wants to buy. Similarly, the government has a huge supply of foreclosed properties through its direct ownership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not to mention the vast portfolio of foreclosed homes on the books of the insolvent banks it controls.
What we propose is a two-fer. Let us as a nation put the question of race to bed once and for all and in so doing also clear the books of the nationalized banks and auto makers. Let us give anyone who can prove they are a direct descendent of a slave a foreclosed home and a Chrysler. I admit it is not 40 acres and mule, but hey what would you do with mule in todays world anyway?
Should this one go in Bams on-line suggestion box?
OK, I’ll sign up to give blacks 40 acres and a mule (and a Chrysler.) As soon as they return the several trillion confiscated from whites and paid out as welfare, food stamps, etc.
Why worry about 40 acres and a mule when they already have a tax-payer funded mortgage and their very own JACKASS!
Good one!
Reparations? You mean intentionally destroying the US with CRA isn’t enough? GM isn’t enough? Chrysler & Pontiac isn’t enough?
What IS enough? Killing all the Whites?
Think about it. Slavery is/was a most horrendous institution. To be bound involuntarily to serve another for all of your life is a pretty bleak proposition.
However, under the institution of American Slavery, a man had free housing, free medical care, free food, clothing and lifetime employment. Security from cradle to grave.
Now, however, he has voluntarily enslaved himself to the government for exactly the same thing.
One difference - he can now walk away from all of this.
No reparations. Never.
The only true reparation is to put them in the same position they would have been in had there been no slavery. That means stripping them of everything they own and shipping them off to Africa.
Personally, I would prefer to see the whites packed up on ships and sent back to Europe where they came from first.
Good point.
Who would have thought we would see what Mises described as Socialism on the German Model actually implemented in the United States.
On the other hand, one might argue that this outcome was inevitable once the constraints the Founder's placed on the national government were destroyed. Gee thanks Mr. Lincoln.
Personally I agree with the comparisons between Lincoln and Obama. Both were willing to destroy the Republic in order to save the Union. For Obama it was merely the UAW, for Lincoln it was the whole enchilada. By my reckoning this makes Abe the bigger tyrant.
LOL!
In all candor your response is racist and harsh.
There are no ex-slaves to "strip and send back to Africa." There are only people whose ancestors were slaves generations ago. So by what logic should these innocents be deported? And, as a subsequent poster somewhat rudely replies, who sends back who is a formula that can only compound past injustices.
But we note in the interest of historical accuracy that the solution you proposed was in fact the solution Lincoln, the great emancipator, actually believed would be the best for all at the time of his demise.
In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, "It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation, and deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insensibly; and in their places be, pari passu [on an equal basis], filled up by free white laborers."
Abraham Lincoln
February 27, 1860
They don’t want to kill all the whites. Who’ll be left to shine their shoes and tend their fields?
He didn't stick around though. Made his racist statement and scooted on...
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The whole situation looked different back in the time of Lincoln. Many of the newly freed slaves had actually been born in Africa at that point. In fact, the country of Liberia was a private venture started by former President Monroe and other financiers in order to create an African homeland of sorts that freed blacks could go back to if they wished. Liberia has a very interesting history- the first president of that country was an American black named Joseph Jenkins Roberts from Virginia (for example). It is perhaps the only true American colony but not a true one at all because our government never wanted any part of it.
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But that's neither here nor there. That other freeper's comment was offensive and racist and does not belong on the forum. We are all tainted by his view and I, for one, do not like it. Let him get in a boat and ship his sorry arse back to whatever rock his ancestors crawled out from under.
For the record, I have a lot of sympathy for the descendants of the slaves. Uniquely, among Americans their ancestors did not choose to come here. And I think a lot of what makes an American is a spirit of self reliance and a quest to be free of authority much of which is cultural. Bill Murray put it pretty well in Stripes when he said "our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world." We are indeed the descendants of the misfits that were driven to defy authority.
This same process of self selection did not happen for the Africans brought here as slaves. Although in an interesting way it is happening today with immigrants from places like Jamaica and even Nigeria. You read an occasional piece from some dunderhead journalist puzzled by the fact that most black immigrants thrive in America while many native born blacks do not. This is not hard to understand. It is the self selection process described above. But you can't see this if all you see is color. In other words you can't see this if you are a racist (as most on the left are).
To make matters worse, the Constitutional Convention failed to resolve the question of slavery. Punting this issue turned out to be a real blunder. And the Founders have to be held to accounts. I suspect that if the Founders could take a mulligan on that one, knowing what transpired "four scour and seven years" later they would do it differently. But the descendants of the slaves can with some justification say that the Constitution never protected them. Not even after the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (14 and 15 as well as 16 and 17 should be repealed by the way). Add in the enmity generated by Reconstruction and you have a pretty sad state of affairs.
Given all this it is not really surprising that a large portion of the black community does not share our values. Hell, most of the white people do not really understand the value system on which the country was founded. This is a sad reality that is not going to change.
Despite Obama a large portion of the black community will likely remain antagonistic towards the country. This is why it is so foolish for the Stupid Party to keep trying to win them over in large numbers. The members of the black community who understand and appreciate the uniqueness of the American experiment are already on board. The rest are hopelessly adrift and I fear will remain in the thrall of their Democrat overseers for a very long time.
Insightful post. I enjoyed reading it.
Where did I say “send them back?” Of course we’re not talking about actual slaves. And neither are the “reparations” thugs; that was the whole point of my post. They—the “reparations” thugs—want to use the power of the state to plunder Caucasians who never held slaves, and they do it based on a never ending grievance due to blackness theory. Fine, but if we’re going to talk about the supposed continuing legacy of slavery, then one aspect we can’t ignore must surely be the presence of the slaves’ descendants in America and the opportunities they enjoyed as a result. But you were too busy looking for an excuse to throw out the R-word to grasp the point of the post.
On this we can certainly agree.
Perhaps we will agree here too.
Richard Nixon was excoriated for suggesting that the problem of race in America could be best dealt with by a policy of "benign neglect." On this he was absolutely right. After all "benign neglect" is just another term for a government policy that is color blind or "race neutral" as some prefer to call it. This is the essential American promise. That the all are equal before the law (read: "the government").
A policy of Benign Neglect could only be an improvement over the policy of Pernicious Pandering that has been followed by both national parties ever since. Look at the destruction that has wrought!
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