Slavery Reparations and Economics

The African slave system existed roughly from 1441 until slavery in Brazil was abolished in 1888. This is a period of 447 years. During this entire period Whites were being owned and treated as slaves under the name of serfs and peasants in Europe, Austria, and Russia. The abolition of serfdom and peasantry roughly parallels the abolition of slavery and occurred for similar reasons. Virtually all Americans are descended from these freed serfs who immigrated to the US. You can say that the freed slaves in the North fought a war to free the slaves in the South. African slavery existed in the US from 1619 to 1865. This is a period of 246 years. From 1441 to 1619 the slave system existed outside the US in South America and the Caribbean and other possessions of Portugal, Spain, and England. It had its first existence in Portuguese possessions like Brazil and continued to its last day in Brazil. Slaves provided labor in these countries for 178 years before the first major importation of slaves into the US. Slavery was abolished in the US 23 years before it was abolished in Brazil. These countries had and used slave labor for 201 years longer than the US did.

If we look at these countries today. These countries which had more slaves longer than the US, we find that they are all relatively poor, third world, countries. If the wealth of the US was built on the backs of slaves, why are these countries poor? Why is the US which had fewer slaves, and that for centuries less time than these countries did the richest and most powerful country in the world? These poor third world countries had more slaves than the US and they had them for almost twice as long as the US, why are they poor and the US rich if the wealth of the US was built on the backs of slaves?

It is clear if you look around at the world today and consider the economic status of countries who held slaves that the slave system did not build strong economies or create enormous wealth. The slave owning countries were poor undeveloped countries providing cheap goods to richer more developed nations. The reasons that this is true have been advanced in the section on Slavery and Liberty in this book. Adam Smith is quoted extensively to demonstrate the fact that Slavery provides only the illusion of cheap labor and indeed cripples the economic development of any nation which adopts it. This being a fact, Slavery must be considered a form of economic disease which afflicted the economic development of countries which contracted it. The US had only a mild form of the disease and recovered more rapidly than countries which were seriously infected with it. The US did suffer from the disease for about two centuries and must be poorer than it would have been if it had never contracted the disease. The wealth of the US was not built on the backs of slaves. The wealth of the US was built despite the US being temporarily infected with this horrific economic disease.

The idea that the wealth of the US was built on the backs of slaves is one of the ideas used to justify Slavery Reparations. Since it is obviously totally false, it cannot be used to justify Slavery Reparations because the US is poorer, not richer because of its temporary infection with this disease. There is no wealth resulting from Slavery to be returned to the descendants of the Slaves.

The principle developed in the section on Liberty and Slavery is also applied in the section on the Right to a Minimum Wage. It establishes that the right to a livable minimum wage is a Natural Right protected under the 9^th and 10^th Amendments. Minimum wage laws are necessary to prevent the institution of slave worker conditions through economic pressures.

The Democrats no doubt like the idea that a Minimum Wage is a Natural Right, and the Republicans doubtless like the idea that the US doesn’t owe Blacks reparations for money from slave labor because the US is poorer not richer because of the slave system. Both parties support any idea which supports their political agenda when it supports their political agenda and then reject such principles when they contradict their political agenda. As usual, both parties are wrong and somewhat hypocritical.

Since the idea that the wealth of the US is built on the backs of slaves is clearly nonsense, it is worthwhile to enquire into the origins of that idea. Aptheker in “American Negro Slave Revolts” notes that slaves clearly distinguished between ‘taking’ and ‘stealing’. Taking was the legitimate appropriation of the masters property because after all, everything that the master had was the result of slave labor and the slave had a moral right to it. Stealing was taking things from other slaves which was morally wrong. Ideas like this are passed from generation to generation. The idea that all the wealth in the US is built on the backs of slaves is simply the old slave culture feeling that all the wealth of the masters was built on the backs of slaves. It was true of the old plantation masters. Their wealth such as it was, was built on the backs of slaves. Such wealth as it was, was not much. The South was much, much poorer than the North, and the North destroyed the South burying it during the Civil War under the superior productive capacity of a free economy making war on a slave economy.

It is fair and just to say that the wealth of the slave owners was built on the backs of slaves. It is fair to say that the slaves had a moral right to take as much of that wealth as they could get away with. That wealth was all destroyed in the Civil War. It wasn’t much to begin with and it is all long gone.

It is wrong to pretend that Blacks today have a right to just take wealth that was built despite the crippling influence of slavery on the national economy.

In previous sections such as the one on Race and IQ and Husband Murder in Black America the negative effects of slave culture on Blacks in the US today have been discussed. This belief is a case in point. It cripples and destroys the ability of Blacks in the US to raise themselves in two fundamental ways. 1) By giving them a sense of moral entitlement to other peoples wealth it undermines their feeling that they have to earn their fair share. They do not feel they should have to work to get what they want. 2) By giving them a sense of moral entitlement to other peoples wealth it makes them feel morally justified to take that wealth. It makes them feel it is morally right to steal. This encourages theft, burglary and armed robbery and results in high crime rates in the Black community. It is one of the root causes of all the worst problems afflicting Blacks in the US today. This belief, this feeling, and the political movements and individual behaviors which spring from it are crippling and destroying Blacks as a people in the US.

The strength of the Slavery Reparations movement in the Black community is roughly proportional to the strength of this kind of Slave Culture, Slave Thinking, Slave Feeling and Slave Behavior in Black America today. Any self-respecting Black person should be ashamed to be associated with the Slavery Reparations movement.

First, it is necessary to note that Slavery Reparations have been paid. President Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ proposed to give Blacks a hand up with a number of programs meant to help Blacks overcome the disadvantages that centuries of racism and discrimination had created for them. Numerous government programs like Affirmative Action were created and have been in place for more than 30 years. Since these programs were meant to compensate for the suffering of Blacks in the past, they were reparations programs. Generally speaking, except for laws against discrimination, they were badly designed and probably did Blacks more harm than good, but they were reparations programs, and their cost can be legitimately subtracted from any computation of reparations payments.

Second, how do you calculate compensation? If someone is caught running a slave labor workshop today, the compensation would be based on the amount those workers would have received if they had been employed legally at legal wages competitive with other workers in the same industry or field. If you apply this standard to the labor of slaves in the Antebellum South, you have to look at what other workers around the world were receiving for the same kind of work at that time in history. Most agricultural workers around the world during the period of slavery in the US were peasants, serfs or slaves. Essentially they received no more for their labor than slaves in the US received for theirs. On this basis, no compensation is required.

To make some compensation possible you must look at tenant farmers or other laborers above the world average at this time and compensate the descendants of slaves on that basis. According to “The New International Encyclopedia” published by Dodd, Mead and Co. in 1912, volume XX article on wages the average annual wage for a worker in England in the thirteenth century was 35s 8p and this increased to 39 lbs in 1891. This period spans the period of the slave trade. At the end of the Slave period in America in June of 1891 daily wages ranged from 75 cents in the Carolinas to 2.50 in Montana, and were at 1.25 in New York (this is about 30 years after the Civil War and are probably higher than at the end of the Civil War). In 1633 daily wages were between 25 and 33 cents a day for the best workers. These wages are for workers not receiving room and board. Wages for tenants living on the land being worked would have been rather less. Taking an average from 1633 (25) to 1891 (1.25). The average would be 75 cents a day or 273.75 a year. Slaves were held in the US for 246 years. There were approximately 500,000 slaves in the US in 1775. By the end of the Civil War there were 4 million slaves in the US. Again, taking an average population figure 2 and a quarter million. This gives a rough estimate of what the Slaves should have received in recompense for their labor by multiplying 273.75 * 246 * 2.25 million. This yields a figure of 151,520,625,000. (Think of how much faster the economy would have developed if that money had been circulating through the economy stimulating industry and invention.) Divide this by 4 million or the number of slaves freed at the end of the Civil War and you get 37,880.16 per slave. Today there are 35,509,000 blacks in the US. Thus each slave from the end of the Civil War has approximately 35,509,000/4million = 9 descendants . Each would have an equal share in the 37,880.16 dollars owed so 37,880.16/9= 4208.91 dollars apiece. This is probably on the generous side. It takes wages from the North, not the South, it assumes a free laborer not receiving room and board, not a tenant supplied with food, shelter and clothing. It assumes skilled not unskilled labor and averages the wages for the best workers not average workers. It starts with the black population at the time of the revolution not at the beginning of slavery. A more painstaking estimate might be less than half as much.

How much do we subtract for Affirmative Action, et al? In 1960 the black population was 18,872,000 taking an average Black population for the years between 1960 and 2000 we get 27,190,500. 30 times 27,190,500 = 815,715,000. This is the number of man years that the US government has been paying for reparations type programs for Blacks. Our figure above of 2.25 million by 246 yields 553,500,000 man years blacks spent in slavery. The US has been paying reparations now for 262,215,000 more man years than slavery existed in this country. If the average amount the US spent on such programs per person per year was equal to or greater than $273.25, then the US has overpaid the amount due for reparations. It is highly likely that the US has spent at least $273.25 a year per Black on such programs. 273.25 * 262,215,000=7,165,024,875. By these figures Blacks owe their fellow Americans 7 trillion dollars in overpayment of Slavery Reparations. Each individual Black in the US owes his fellow Citizens 2017.80 in overpayment of Slavery Reparations. A more painstaking calculation could easily make it more than twice as much.

(This is not meant to suggest that Blacks actually owe in the sense of being required to pay such a debt. The US has a vested interest in preventing Blacks from being an oppressed people. Programs to accomplish that purpose are legitimate expenses. The two premises of Natural Law, that the implicit purpose of the State is to improve the lives of the Citizens and that the State cannot act to destroy itself both make it an obligation of Natural Law for the US to act to help Blacks raise themselves up. If the US acts to repress blacks it violates the first and creates a revolutionary subculture which violates the second. You cannot violate one without violating the other. On the other hand, it is legitimate to deduct the cost of such programs from things like Slavery Reparations when such ideas are advanced.)

In this entire calculation, figures have been calculated on the generous side towards Blacks. It is certain that Republicans could redo these figures and have Blacks owing more trillions in overpayment for Reparations to the rest of the US (by assuming unskilled tenant farmers the daily wage would probably drop to about 25 cents, and the amount paid yearly in aid programs is probably a couple of thousand per person) and that Democrats could redo these figures and have the US owing trillions to Blacks (by saying that those are Y2K dollars compared to Civil War Dollars and you have adjust for inflation, 1775 dollars are roughly equivalent to $10.75 in 1990s dollars, Civil War dollars are probably about half that) (add the opposing viewpoints together, split the difference and the estimates here are fair). Numbers are fun to play with and you can manipulate them to get the results you want. In the figures above Blacks basically break even. It is a fact that the US has been paying reparations for slavery longer man year for man year than the US slave system existed in the US. On this basis, it is common sense to assume that reparations have been paid in full. Even if there were a moral or economic justification for paying reparations, the US people have already out of the goodness of their hearts paid the full amount due. That is what the various programs started in the 60’s under Johnson were meant to do. The Slavery Reparations movement is just an attempt to extend these programs under another name.

If this issue were to be debated fairly, the US should be on the list of nations receiving reparations payments from other nations involved in the Slave Trade. The slave system was introduced into the US while it was still a collection of Colonies ruled by England, it was received dubiously and uncertainly and many times laws attempting to make further importation of slaves illegal were voided by the English Parliament. The US suffered the economic disease of slavery in a considerable part of its territory prior to the Civil War. It then paid one of the harshest prices any nation has ever paid in human blood and sacrifice to end the practice. After that the economy of the South continued to be burdened by slave like economic practices and remained poor and undeveloped until about midway through the 20^th century. The case has been made that the African Nations who sold Blacks to the Slavers were forced into the practice against their wills. An even stronger case can be made on behalf of the US. The various slave holding states in the US passed laws repeatedly outlawing further importation of slaves. These laws were repeatedly voided by the Parliament of England and the colonies were literally forced by England to continue importing slaves. The US was nothing but a poor third world collection of colonies during the entire period of the slave trade. It was not a world power or a major player in international affairs and had no power to exert any significant influence on the African Slave Trade. Finally, the US was never a major player in the Slave Trade. In total it transported less than 3% of the slaves and imported less than 4%. The nations of the world pushing Slavery Reparations are pushing for them from the US for only one reason, the US has money. Lawsuits always go for the money not for the guilty or responsible parties.

The Slavery Reparations movement is International. Assuming that an International Movement insists the US pays 100 billion in reparations. Blacks will pay approximately 10% of the tax money to pay that amount. The amount will be split among countries according to the percentage of slaves those countries received. The US received less than 4% of slaves so Blacks in the US will receive less than 4% of the money the US would spend. Blacks would pay 10% and receive less than 4%. Blacks would get back less than 1 dollar in Reparations for every 2 dollars in Taxes they paid. It gets worse. The International Reparations movement wants to look at the damage done to Africa not just to the Slaves from Africa. They want the US to pay reparations to the descendants of the Blacks who sold Blacks to the slave traders. So half that 100 billion goes to Africa. Blacks in the US get back less than 50 cents in Reparations for every 2 dollars in Taxes they spend. Governments are not efficient at handling money. The Bureaucrats involved will probably suck up about 25% of that hundred billion in operating expenses. In the end in an International Reparations payment for slavery, Blacks in the US will receive a quarter or so for every 2 bucks they pay.

There just ain’t no gold at the end of that Slavery Reparations rainbow. Once you start really calculating the figures the money never existed from slavery and the money has already been spent drawn from the vibrant US economy despite slavery’s negative effects. The idea is a scam. Pie in the Sky.