The UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent issued a report on Monday, stating that the United States owes Americans of African descent reparations for slavery and other incidents of mistreatment, up to the present day.
The group asserts that the reparations are due because of the disadvantages caused by 245 years of legalized slavery of black Africans in America, and that the United States has not confronted its legacy of “racial terrorism.” For example, the report argues, “Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching.”
The group suggests that the reparations could come in the form of educational opportunities, psychological rehabilitation, cancellation of debts, and formal apologies.
The report links injustices found in American history with what was argued as present injustices. “In particular,” it states, “the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent.”
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Actually, the UN report has its own problem with the truth — either that or the report demonstrates a profound ignorance of American and world history. The truth is, the members of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent probably do not care.
It appears that since slavery was outlawed throughout the United States with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, the United Nations agency is blaming the present U.S. government and its people for slavery in America, dating back to 1620. Apparently, they consider the 20 black Africans brought to Jamestown in 1619 by the Dutch to be slaves. (The Dutch had captured the Africans from a Spanish ship and decided to “sell” them to Virginians).
There are several problems with this method of dating American slavery. The black Africans brought to Jamestown in English America in 1619 did not become slaves, but rather indentured servants. As such, they had the same legal status as several white Englishmen who were temporarily placed in a status of servanthood. Under the indentured servant system, when a person finished the indenture (or contract) after a period of a few years, they were free to hire out their labor for wages with whomever they wished. Many of these former indentured servants received land, and some eventually took on their own indentured servants.
In the case of the black Africans brought to English America in 1619, all who were still alive at the end of the indenture period were freed, like all other indentured servants. Amazingly, one of those African men, Anthony Johnson, became a land owner himself, and is considered by many historians to have been the first slave owner in Virginia.
Slavery did not become legal in Virginia or anywhere else in English America for several years after 1619, so the 245 years of slavery attributed to the United States by this globalist group is incorrect.
The other problem with this dating method is that the United States did not even exist as an independent nation until 1776. It was not up to the colonies of English America to abolish the institution of slavery; they were part of the British Empire, where slavery continued to be legal until well into the 19th century. In fact, Virginia made efforts to abolish the slave trade and slavery itself, but the actions of its assembly were vetoed by the British government.
In other words, if one is to bill the people of the United States for slavery, they could not be held accountable prior to July 4, 1776. (That is date of the Declaration of Independence, which most readers will know, unless they are part of an agency of the UN.) The reality is that Congress forbade slavery in the Northwest Territory, created in 1787, making America a leader in ending the ugly institution.
And what about black Americans who are descendants of black slave owners? Are they to be compensated, too, or will they have to pay reparations? What about a person who has ancestors who were both slave owners (white or black) and slaves?
The fact of the matter is, slavery existed in Africa for centuries, and is still practiced in some parts of the continent even today. Medievel Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta visited the ancient kingdom of Mali in 1350-1351, and noted that the number of slaves a family owned was a source of pride.
Most of the slaves imported to America throughout the course of the colonial period (it became illegal to import slaves into America in the early 1800s), were slaves in Africa, and were sold by African leaders to European slave traders.
In his 1858 book Travels in the Interior of Africa, Mungo Park wrote, “The slaves in Africa, I suppose, are nearly in the proportion of three to one to the freeman.… All these unfortunate beings are considered as strangers and foreigners, who have no right to the protection of the law, and may be treated with severity, or sold to a stranger, according to the pleasure of their owners.”
American slavery is not a proud chapter in our nation’s history, but slavery has existed in one form or another in all parts of the world. It is probable that almost all people alive today could count a slave among their ancestors. But expecting reparations for that injustice which happened to one’s ancestors decades or even centuries ago would be ludicrous.
So what are we to make of this report by the UN? For one thing, it should alert all Americans, regardless of ethnicity, of the dangers of the United Nations. Like all Marxists, its members are looking to take wealth and redistribute it. That is your wealth, if you are a middle-class American.
And under Marxist practice, they are always looking to create divisions, or exacerbate existing divisions, in order to generate cannon fodder for their hoped-for communist revolution.
As long as the United States remains a member of the United Nations, and its headquarters remains on the East River in New York City, our national sovereignty is threatened. The UN’s goal is to chip away at America’s national sovereignty until we are merged into a one-world socialist system.
If you become frustrated with your local, state, and national politicians for taxing you oppressively, curtailing your liberties, and replacing free enterprise with socialist economics, you can expect even worse under the global tyranny we would experience with the UN as a world government. This push for reparations is just another weapon in the hands of these would-be one-worlders.
The only good solution is for the United States to get out of the United Nations — and to get the United Nations out of the United States.
