The high-profile disclosure of Wachovia's historic ties to slavery and the public apology recently offered by its chairman provide a graphic example of the ongoing campaign to force America to confront its racial misdeeds. Driven by the growing number of states and cities that require companies doing business with them to disclose whether they or their predecessors profited directly or indirectly from slavery, Wachovia's admission that banks it acquired in Georgia and South Carolina either owned slaves or accepted them for collateral raises a crucial question: Do modern-day American businesses have a duty-bound debt to the descendants of black slaves...