by Nina Keeply

Created on: January 21, 2008

To fully understand where the idea of black or African-Americans receiving some sort of restitution you would have to look at the history of America and Western Euroupe. European history speaks for itself, everywhere they went was followed by death. If you didn't look, talk , act, or even dress like them they considered you savages. Millions of lives were lost during the founding of this country. Millions of Native-Americans killed off from foreign disease, war, and the hard work of slavery. Once all the Native people were killed off or died the settlers had to restock them with someone who was able to work long hours in the sun for free. The answer to their problem came from a Dutchman who traded 20 African slaves from his ship for food. This was the start of the African slave trade for the American colonies.

Some how what could have started off as indentured servitude ended up becoming legalized slavery. There was no buying or working your way free. Come as a slave, born from a slave; no matter who your father is, will now always be a slave. In history yes there has always been some form of slavery, but not like this. No one in America besides African-Americans, and Native-Americans can say that they have a great-grandmother who was born a slave. Some how we always here that slavery was way back then, yes slavery started in the early 17th century, but slavery didn't end until the end of the 19th century. There are African-Americans TODAY who were born in the early 1900's who say their parents were slaves, and were treated and lived like second-class citizens most of their lives.

America was the last nation to abolish slavery. America's greatest incomes were from the export of tobacco, and cotton. Slavery "ended" in 1865 with the thirteen amendment. The fourteenth amendment gave all the newly freed slaves equal protection under the law, and granted citizenship of all the former slaves, which all southern states rejected and enacted their own set of "Black code laws" which didn't end until the civil-rights movement of the 1960's.

So do I think we should just start writing out checks to every African-American or Native-American living today? NO Do I think we as a nation need to right a wrong YES we are not talking about thousands of years ago, we are talking about people in our country TODAY who lives were directly impacted by having slave parents. Ask yourself would you want some sort of restitution?

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