Some Logical Problems With Reparations

My maternal ancestors, the McNairs were slave holders. Therefore, any Negroid named McNair may come to me demanding reparations and I shall offer this promise. Go to Africa, get reparations from the descendants of those people who sold your ancestors into slavery to my ancestors, get reparations from them, come back to me, and I'll match it. Otherwise, SHUT UP!

Not a bad solution.

Actually, you inspired a new blog post on this topic. So, please check out my recent posts.

Thanks for the comment and welcome to the blog. I hope to hear form you again.

My ancestors were Cherokees from N Ga, By 1820 they were in Macon Ga area, They owned slaves, and were fairly prosperious, In the 1830 all their relations in N Ga were rounded up by gun point and marched to OK. During the War between the states my people from Macon fought with Lees Army of Northern Virginia, some died as P.O.W.s One fought for four years only to die at Appomattox a few hours before the surrender, My g grandfather was the only one to come home, Sherman had burned his home and destroyed all his property, Gone with the wind you might say, I offer no apology for the slaves my people owned or for the yankees they killed, My people have fought in every war this country has had, some are highly decorated, they have sufferd the hardships and triumps of this great nation, we will continue to do so, we are what makes this great country what it is, we are the common men and women that are willing to do what is necessary , We owe nobody anything and nobody owes us,

That's funny, as I have some (relatively small amount of)Cherokee blood as well. In fact, it is the only part of my ancestry that possibly held slaves. (Even more peculiar, my Cherokee blood is maternal, but a paternal cousin has married a Cherokee as well.)

As a result I am moderately informed about Cherokee history, even made an effort to teach myself Cherokee, though the alphabet took a while to figure out. (I never made it as far with Cherokee as Russian, Greek or Hebrew, so I guess it was something besides having to learn a new alphabet. Maybe I started with the wrong books to teach myself.)

I not only agree with you that there is nothing about which you should be ashamed, but will add this: Even if your ancestors HAD done wrong, you would still have no reason to feel guilt. In my mind, the only ones who should feel guilty are those who DID something, not their descendants.

Well, material for another post, I suppose.

Thanks for your comment, and welcome tot he blog. I hope to hear from you again.

Were brought over as indentured servants. By many accounts they were treated worse than slaves. As a white guy with red hair, do I qualify for reparations?

Considering how some indentured servants were treated, perhaps. As their tenure had a deadline, a lot were worked harder than any slave would have been. Slaves were owned for a lifetime, indentured servants for only a fixed term of years (often seven). So they were not treated even as well as slaves.

In other cases, various legal tricks were used to extend their terms. In those cases, indentured servants became slaves in all but name.

But that does make my point as well. Yet another group with a grievance and a claim to reparations.