A PECULIAR INHERITANCE: SLAVERY

AND THE CASE FOR REPARATIONS IN

THE UNITED STATES
INTRODUCTION

Since the beginning of mans life on earth, the family has served as
the cornerstone of society. The integrity of the family set the standard
for society from the beginning of time as the underpinning of our
civilization, reflecting the beneficial differences between men and
women and the complementarity of their hearts, minds, and bodies.
Aristotle argued that the natural progression of human beings flowed
from the family via small communities out to the polis. The state itself,
then, as a natural extension of the family, mirrors this critical
institution.i ii
And:
The family is the entity that gives real meaning to life and to existence.
The family is the cornerstone of the social system. The family is not a
casual or spontaneous organization of people but a divinely ordained
group. Marriage is noble and sacred, a social contract that confers
mutual obligations on the couple and society. The progress and
welfare of society, or its breakdown, can be traced to the strengths
and unity, or the lack of it, in the family. This also applies to
civilization
The family has an important role in providing socialization and values
for children and in providing social and economic security as well.
Being part of a family motivates individuals, motivates us all, to work
hard, sacrifice our well-being, and work for the welfare of the family.
In all faiths and religions, the family is the foundation of society. The
peace and security offered by a stable family unit is greatly valued and
considered central for the spiritual growth of its members, society, and
humanity. The harmonious social order is created by the families and
extended families in which all children are treasured, valued, and
nurtured.iii
There are established arguments in support of, and against, descendants of enslaved
Africans in the United States receiving reparationsiv. The arguments in favor of

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reparations are based upon the economic advantage slavery provided the United
Statesv; the brutal conditions of slaveryvi; and the social, political, judicial, and economic
disenfranchisement of African Americans. vii
A common argument against reparations cites the indigenous practice of slavery within
the African continent. We acknowledge that the practice of slavery in Africa was ancient
and well established by the Europeans began to export human beings from that
continent. However, it differed greatly from the form of chattel slavery that existed with
America with the arrival of Europeans.
In Africa, many societies recognized slaves merely as property, but
others saw them as dependents who eventually might be integrated into
the families of slave owners. Still other societies allowed slaves to attain
positions of military or administrative power. Most often, both slave
owners and slaves were black Africans, although they were frequently of
different ethnic groups.viii
In the American system, slavery was a condition that was not only held for life, it was
passed down through the generations via the status of the mother, codified by the laws
of the individual states. It was a brutal birthright. This paper illustrates the profound and
destructive force this peculiar form of slavery would have on the authors enslaved
ancestors in Edgefield County, South Carolina. The authors will demonstrate the effects
the American slavery system had upon the most fundamental aspect of the human
experience an attack on the fundamental building block of society - the family.

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LEWIS MATTHEWS BY BRIAN SHEFFEY

My maternal 3x great grandfather, Lewis Matthews,

was born in 1824 in the Blocker region of Edgefield
County, South Carolina. He was the son of an
unknown slave woman and her owner, Drury Cook
Matthews (1760-1830). Born to a slave, he inherited
his mothers slave status from the moment he first
drew breath. Despite being sired by his owner, he
maintained the status of a slave until freed through the
Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
Apart from an oral tradition among the Matthews (including Mathis family members) still
residing in Edgefield, little is known about Lewiss life. What kind of man was he? What
was his nature? What were the quirks and foibles that made him individual? These
questions are part and parcel for any genealogist. When it comes to researching
ancestors who were born into a lifetime of bondage and servitude, forbidden from learning
how to read and write, each discovery made is akin to finding a sacred precious object.
Each discovery for an enslaved ancestor is a hard fought for success. Something as basic
as discovering even a first name for an enslaved ancestor is cause for celebration. This
dynamic makes African American genealogy something unique. A people stripped of
history, customs, traditions, family and ancestry have precious few clues to find their
ancestors. This was by design. American slavery was designed and developed with this

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in mind to better control a people who chaffed at the slavery system. It also laid the
foundations for the American expression of white supremacy.
Lewis Matthews was illiterate, born in a time when it was illegal for slaves to learn how to
read and write. He was incapable of leaving any words to his descendants. Nor were his
children capable of leaving a written account. All of his known 22 children were illiterate.
What I have gleaned of his life has largely come from vital records and slave records. He
was human property. He was first owned by his father, and then by his half-sister,
Susannah Pope Matthews. Like a chair, a horse, a parcel of land, or a table; he had a
dollar value. US$ 450 in 1831 ($US 12,500.00 in 2016 currency) and US$ 500 in 1847
(US$ 14,705.88 in 2016 currency). Where there is property, there are accounts.
There are no words that can describe first seeing a Dollar value placed against an
ancestors name on a Deed of Sale. No matter how prepared I was to see such a thing,
it nevertheless broke my heart. It was a visceral and raw experience. One I will never
forget.
I cannot visit, much less share, Lewiss history without touching upon the history of the
place where he was enslaved. The history of Edgefield, South Carolina.
AN OVERVIEW OF EDGEFIELDS HISTORY, INCLUDING ITS FOUNDING FAMILIES

Prior to its formation in 1785, Edgefield County was a part of Ninety-Six District.
Ninety-Six was divided into new counties, afterwards called districts, which included:
Edgefield, Abbeville, Newberry, Laurens, Union, and Spartanburg. Augusta, now in
Georgia, also formed part of this county.

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Old Ninety-Six, as its now called, was an active and critical trading post since the 1690s.
The trade was mainly in furs. Prior to the arrival of European settlers and Africandescended slaves, these lands were part of the dominion of the Cherokee Nation and the
Creek. It was, and remains, an isolated, rural, and wild part of South Carolina.
Families such as Abney, Brooks, Cloud, Park, Sim(p)kins, and Stuart/Stewart, all slave
owning families, were among the earliest settlers. DNA tests taken by the authors reveal
a genetic connection to these families. A latter wave of 18th Century arrivals from Virginia
to Edgefield would include additional slave owning families such as Adams, Brunson,
Dorn, Harlan/Harling, Ma(t)thews/Mathis, Ouzts, Peterson, Settles, Timmerman,
Thurman, Utterback, Yeldell and White all of whom are the authors ancestors. The link
between their African American descendants and their white descendants has been
confirmed through DNA.
A SHATTERED FAMILY TREE THROUGH 300 YEARS OF MATTHEWS FAMILY
ENSLAVEMENT

Traditional genealogy enabled me to glimpse key moments in Lewis Matthews history.

Researching post-Emancipation marriage and death certificates identified thirteen
children born to Lewis and the woman he would come to marry once freed, Martha Bottom,
also of Blocker, Edgefield, South Carolina. It is worth remembering that prior to
Emancipation, the births, deaths and marriages of slaves were rarely recorded. This is
one of the most fundamental voids in African American genealogical research.
An additional death record produced another child, a daughter, born to Lewis and a
woman only identified as Janie.
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Social Security Application records and death records produced a further eight children
born to Lewis during the period of his enslavement. The mother, or mothers, of these
children were cited as not known by the respective informants. DNA testing through
AncestryDNA, along with DNA matching through Gedmatch, strongly suggests he
fathered at least a further nine children prior to the end of the Civil War. All of his known
and suspected children resided throughout the area formerly known as Ninety-Six.
Numerous conversations with African American Matthews-descended family members in
the Old Ninety-Six area boiled down to one hypothesis when it came to the sheer number
of children Lewis sired. He was used by his owner-father and owner-half-sister as a
breeding stud. In short, he sired a steady stream of slave children for the benefit of their
slave owners either to increase that owners workforce or as the human equivalent of a
cash crop. A young, healthy, handsome young man with a light complexion, and
seemingly potent when it came to impregnating women, Lewis had the perfect attributes
to produce a steady stream of children with a fair complexion and robust health
attributes which would have made these children valuable property with a significant
dollar value.
While Lewis had what we, in this day and age, would class as a paternal relationship with
the children he had with Martha Bottom, he had no involvement with the children he
fathered with other enslaved women. Those other children were either formally or
informally adopted by the men those other women married when they were freed at the
close of the Civil War. To date, until they heard from me, the descendants of those unions
had no idea of their Matthews origins. The reason for this is telling. This second group of

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children took the names of their step fathers, bar two who took the name Mathes, a
seemingly deliberate corruption of the original Matthews/Mathis name.
A BROKEN FAMILY TREE

The arrows in the image above mark entries for my 3x great grandfather, Lewis Matthews.
The peculiarities of how male slaves were classed as an adult or boy varied widely. Although
both entries are for my 3x great grandfather. The asterisks mark confirmed members of

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Lewiss enslaved African American family. Sampson, Primus and Matthew were Lewiss
brothers. The stars in the image above note how Primus and Sampson were deeded to other
white Matthews family members, who were also their relations. DNA testing will confirm how
many others from the same image will prove to be members of Lewiss immediate and
extended family.
As you read Drury Cook Matthewss Last Will and Testament below, remember that this is
my 4x great grandfather discussing the disposal of his property, which included his son, my
3x great grandfather, Lewis Matthews. I include the disposal of his other enslaved sons,
Lewiss brothers, who were my great uncles. Many of the negroes cited in this Will were
members of Lewiss immediate family. All of the whites who inherited these black human
beings were also their blood relations. American slavery was indeed a singularly peculiar
institution.

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My prevailing question is a fairly simple one. If Drury Matthews didnt recognize his own
bi-racial flesh and blood as a human being, as a man, what impact did that have on
Lewiss sense of self and his sense of worth as a human being? What did this teach him
about the duties of a father for his children? For certainly some of the other slaves
referenced in this Will were Lewiss siblings and equally children of Drury Cook Matthews.
And how would this dynamic play out and echo down the generations on the African
American side of the Matthews/Mathis family?
That Lewis was a loving and dutiful father to the children he raised with Martha Bottom is
not in doubt. There are a handful of family stories to testify to this. What of his other
thirteen known children? Did their step-fathers make up for Lewiss absence? And how
did Lewis reconcile himself with their existence? My hypothesis is that he learned a
fundamental lesson from his father, Drury. Perhaps he compartmentalized his life in a
manner many men can relate to. There were his children by Martha who he had a duty of
care to provide for. Just like his father-owner did with his white children. And then there
were those he merely sired for others benefit much like Drurys actions towards his
mulatto children borne by enslaved women: they were not his concern and, as such, were
of no concern.
Magnify the ramifications of this dynamic by working back through time. The story, the
legacy, and the history between my mulatto Matthews ancestors and their white ownersfamily members stretches back in time to my 9th great grandfather, Anthony Matthews
(1611-1682), a slave owning immigrant from Kent, England who settled in Isle of Wight,
Virginia. Anthony was the founding father, the scion, of a large slave owning family who

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passed slaves and enslaved family members down its various lines into the Carolinas,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.
240 years of one family splitting its slave family apart generation after generation after
generation; to the extent that their African American family had no notion of who they
were as a people, they had no knowledge of their history, no knowledge of their kin or
their kins whereabouts. It was the annihilation of their family. My family. It was a form of
brutal ethnic cleansing at its most fundamental level.
Only now, through advances in DNA testing, can we, their descendants, begin the task
of finding the broken branches from a slavery shattered family tree. Finding these lost
branches is the easy part. Determining their rightful and correct place in the family tree is
a painstaking process with no guarantee of success. It is a painstaking process. Each
familial line has varying degrees of knowledge about their immediate ancestral line. Some
can trace their ancestry back only 4 generations while others have traced their line of
descent through 5 or more generations. Progress has largely been steered by the tireless
efforts of a dozen or so dedicated family genealogists who have made it their lifes work
to reunite a family dispersed through, and torn apart by, slavery. Their efforts require a
combination of traditional genealogy alongside genetic genealogy and DNA triangulation.
The task is herculean.
That is the legacy of slavery. This is the reason why the argument around reparations is
a valid one.

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In terms of non-Native American peoples who arrived in America, no other people in the
history of the continental United States has ever experienced anything remotely like this.
Not in scale. Not in duration.
IMPLICATIONS AND REPARATIONS

Nienstedt makes the argument that The State itself, then, as a natural extension of the
family, mirrors this critical institution. If the State was the cause of the destruction of
enslaved African American families during the slavery epoch, does it not have a duty, a
duty of care, to redress the wrongs done to enslaved families through restitution?
If, in Nienstedts argument, the progress and welfare of society, or its breakdown, can be
traced to the strengths and unity, or the lack of it, in the family should we not argue that
the State has a moral imperative to recompense African Americans for the lack of
progress; the lack of physical, mental and spiritual welfare; and the lack of unity wrought
upon the descendants of slaves?
Reparations has the capacity to not only acknowledge the impact that slavery has had
on the African American descendants of slavery, it can inform how best the State can
serve those that slavery harmed. It addresses the legacies of slavery in the aftermath of
slavery cemented in the Jim Crow Era, and the forms of socio-economic subjugation
used against African Americans which followed the Jim Crow Era up to, and including,
the present day. This latter point forms the central part of Ms Williams argument.

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The civil unrest that smolders in modern America doesnt exist in a vacuum. Its roots lay
in slavery. Its roots lay in Andrew Jacksons refusal to provide reparations when the
America of Abraham Lincolns Republican Party was ready to provide it.
Any conversation on the subject of reparations requires a national conversation. However,
by the very nature of the subject, it must be directed and led by those most affected by
slavery African Americans. For me, reparations would take a multitude of forms:

Financial: A national, minority-owned and managed, banking system with

branches in urban areas as well as rural areas with large minority populations.
Such a banking network would supply micro loans to support entrepreneurship and
innovation, land ownership, and subsidized home ownership (e.g. housing coownership); and

Education: A national history curriculum would include truthful and accurate

teaching about slavery as well as its impact tracing the effects of the slavery to
the presents day. Recent news commentary shows a complete ignorance about
America and its history of slavery, as well as its aftermath that resonates to the
present dayix; and

Land theft compensation: Where land was stolen from African Americans by
coercion, threats of violence or actual violence (as was the case in Edgefieldx xi in
the 1920s, of which my own Matthews family was a victim) there should be
financial restitution in line with established precedents with Native American tribes;

Remembrance: A day with an official moment of silence in remembrance of the

victims of slavery, and its legacy.

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MARTHA BROOKS BY DONYA WILLIAMS

The topic of this paper is to give our point of view on why African Americans should receive
reparations from slavery. As an African American myself, of course my first initial thought is yes
I should receive reparations for what my ancestors endured. I should because it is the only right
thing to do. That is the short answer for one who is not fully educated on the topic of slavery.
For example, history didnt teach me that those who were enslaved had the option to 1) keep
the surnames of those that enslaved them after Emancipation; or 2) simply choose another
surname if they wanted to. In fact, the only thing that history taught me was that whites enslaved
blacks and that it was bad. It wasnt until I started to research my family that I understood the
magnitude of this question which, in turn, allowed me to give a more informed answer.
Martha Brooks was born into slavery in or about 1834 in South Carolina. The 1880 census says
her parents were born in Virginia, however, who they were and where they originated from
remains unknown. Before I started my research, my uncle researched the family in the 1950s.
All that I know of his research is by word of mouth. His research found that we were from Haiti
and that we were direct descendants of Alexandre Dumas. I have yet to prove his theories. This
prompted me to look at other options for researching and DNA testing was at the top of my list.
When I decided to do DNA testing I did so because I was stalled at where I was with regular
researching and I felt DNA testing would give me more. I already knew other researchers who
had tested and were getting results. Because my mother was the baby of 14 children, and her
parents were born in the late 1890s, she was just one generation removed from slavery. This
made her a prime person to test even though I wouldnt be able to get much DNA pertaining to
her father.
That is where Autosomal DNA testing stepped in. Autosomal DNA is a term used in genetic
genealogy to describe DNA which is inherited from the autosomal chromosomes. An autosome
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is any of the numbered chromosomes, as opposed to the sex chromosomes. Humans have 22
pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes (the X chromosome and the Y
chromosome). Autosomes are numbered roughly in relation to their sizes. That is, Chromosome
1 has approximately 2,800 genes, while chromosome 22 has approximately 750 genes.xii This
meant that taking this test for my mom would get info from her mother and father. DNA taken
from my mother has shown that in short she is 86.6% Sub-Saharan African, 11.9%
European, .6% East Asian & Native American, .3% Middle Eastern & North African, .1% South
Asian and .5% Unassigned. The picture below gives a bigger breakdown:
I uploaded my mothers raw data to Gedmatch, a company that allows you to compare your
DNA with other people who have tested with other companies such as AncestryDNA.com and
FTDNA.com, and found there were even larger breakdowns. Those breakdowns connected her
to the Mediterranean, North-AmerIndian and several other demographics (see picture below):

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This DNA analysis result from Gedmatch is just one of many different DNA analysis tools that
can be used to learn ones DNA breakdown. These analytical tools enable a person to
understand how he or she is connected to several different demographics. Testing my mother
felt like I had just tested Eve herself. My mothers DNA was extremely revealing. She was
genetically connected to every well-known name in the Edgefield area.
Martha was enslaved by one of the first families of Edgefield, South Carolina. The Brooks
family. Like those that take DNA test to prove paternity, or find birth parents, DNA for
genealogical research does the same thing. My mothers results proved she was related to the
Brooks family. This family was not just active in the settling of Edgefield; they were also active in
the settling of America. Zachariah, Whitfield, and Preston Brooks (respectively Grandfather,
Son, and Grandson) were involved in at least two American wars prior to the Civil War. The
American Revolutionary War and the Mexican War both seemed to have family members of the
Brooks involved. Zachariah was enlisted in Newberry District, S.C. shortly after the evacuation
of Cambridge by Gen. Greene, and served six months as a private in Capt. John Wallace's
Company of S.C. Troops. He fought in several skirmishes against the British. He served in 1781
and 1782 in Capt. Joseph Towles, company, Col. Samuel Hammond's S.C. regiment, was in a
skirmish on the Edisto River, and was stationed about six weeks on the frontier guarding the
incursions of the Indians. He was also enlisted as one of a corps called the Life Guard of
Pickens, serving a six months term of service. He was afterwards appointed Col. of State
Calvary, and was always known as Col. Brooksxiii. Whitfield and Preston were both lawyers,
and involved in both state as well as national politics. Preston fought in the Mexican War with
his brother Whitfield, Jr. They both were a part of the Palmetto Regiment of the South Carolina
Volunteers where Preston served as Captain. Whitfield Brooks, Sr. carried the title of Colonel
however, I dont see what service branch he fought with or what war he fought in. My research
shows that he may have been mistaken as his son. However, Both Whitfield and Preston were
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planters and strong supporters of slavery. Preston Brooks was probably the most outspoken of
the three - he is certainly the most well-known - when it came to slavery. It is he who committed
the horrendous crime against the abolitionist Charles Sumner; what historians know as the
caning. Simply put, Senator Brooks walked up to Mr. Sumner, who was sitting at his desk on
the senate floor, and said You've libeled my state and slandered my white-haired old relative,
Senator Butler, and I've come to punish you for it.xiv This to Mr. Preston was a legitimate reason
to beat a man so badly that it took three years for Senator Sumner to return to some semblance
of physical normalcy.
Preston believed, supported, and encouraged the succession of South Carolina. On 1
November 1856, the Meeting of the Secessionists of South Carolina at Ninety-Six held an event
to honor Mr. Brooks for what he did to Mr. Sumner. The south supported his choice to brutally
beat Mr. Sumner. This event was not the only event held in his honor. Directly after the beating,
Mr. Brooks resigned his position from the Senate. In response to this, his fellow countrymen
voted him back into his seat and sent him over 300 canes to show their support. This particular
event presented the Honorable Preston S. Brooks with goblets of silver and gold, and replicas of
the same cane he used to beat Mr. Charles Sumner. As a part of his acceptance speech he
wrote the following:

I tell you, fellow citizens, from the bottom of my heart, that the only mode,
which I think available for meeting it is just to tear the Constitution of the
United States, trample it under foot, and form a southern confederacy, every
state of which will be a slaveholding State. I believe it, as I stand in the face
of my makerI believe it on my responsibility you as your honored
representative that the only available means of making that hope effective is
to cut asunder the bonds that tie us together, and take our separate positions
in the family of nations. These are my opinions. They have always been my
opinions. I have been a disunionist from the time I could think.xv
Martha was sold for $1,205 dollars in 1857 when Preston died. This information was found in
the Edgefield Archives as well as in the book Slave Records of Edgefield County by Gloria

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Lucas.xvi I found a chart explaining the worth of a slave during 1857, the same year Martha was
sold to Lemuel Brooks. This chart compared the cost of a slave in 1857 to what a slave would
cost if slavery still existed in 1998:xvii

Class

Value in Dollars, 1857

Value in Dollars, 1998

Number 1 men

1250-1450

20,800-24,100

Fair/Ordinary Men

1000-1150

16,700-19,200

Best Boys (Age 15-18)

1100-1200

18,300-20,000

Best Boys (Age 10-14)

500-575

8,300-17,900

Number 1 Women

1050-1225

17,500-20,400

Fair/Ordinary Women

1050-1225

14,200-17,100

Best Girls

500-1000

8,300-16,700

Families

"Sell in their usual proportions"

Being sold for that amount, and finding the chart above, gave proof that Martha was in fact
considered a prime breeding woman. Martha went through every atrocity that was heard of
when it came to slavery for black women.

miscegenation - The interbreeding of individuals considered to be of different racial

backgrounds;

fancy trade - Female slaves called fancy maids were sold at auction into concubinage
or prostitution, which was termed the fancy trade; and

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slave breeding - Slave breeding in the United States was a practice of slave ownership that
aimed to encourage the reproduction of slaves in order to increase a slaveholders property and
wealth.xviii
With my mothers DNA showing that she was related to the Brooks family, I began to get a
better understanding of things. I am politically knowledgeable and acutely aware of the things
that are still happening to African Americans today. In some moments I can, and have, recited
speeches similar to friends and family similar to the one you read above by Mr. Brooks himself.
By reading and understanding his stance when it came to slavery, as well as finding the chart
above, it was clear to me who I was. My mindset, my attitude and even how I can sometimes be
hot-headed. It was like a light bulb was turned on and who I really am became clear to me. I
was the product of my family; all of my family white and black and its surroundings. I am an
American to the fullest extent of that word.
DEFENDING THE CASE OF REPARATIONS
Genealogy has become very popular and the case of reparation is becoming more and more
prevalent. Due to the use of DNA being added to genealogical research, it is becoming known
that 151 years later, the descendants of slaves are still looking for their families.
I am a direct descendant of Martha Brooks. This topic raises the question of do I deserve
reparations for everything that my 2nd great-grandmother, and her parents before her, went
through? Answering honestly, I will say that reparations doesnt entirely address the history of
slavery and its aftermath in the United States.
I believe that I should have reparations on top of the acknowledgment of slavery. I believe that
just like those who survived the Holocaust received monetary payments, and the recognition of
an act that didnt even happen on American soil, I should receive the same thing. European

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Jewry endured the horrific and the unimaginable during a 12-year period. Enslaved Africans,
and their enslaved descendants, endured the horrific and the unimaginable for approximately 20
generations; nearly 400 years. In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act to
compensate more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated in
internment camps during World War II. The legislation offered a formal apology and paid out
$20,000 in compensation to each surviving victim. The law won congressional approval only
after a decade-long campaign by the Japanese-American community.xix
David Horowitz makes the claim that those asked to pay reparations have no liability because
they didnt do the enslaving, that their ancestors did. When truth be told, there were several
different genocidal crimes committed against African Americans that could be attributed to the
suppression of African Americans after slavery:

The bombing and burning of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma 1921;

The burning and lynching of Rosewood, FL 1923;

Moores Ford Bridge Massacre 1947;

Church burnings that took place from 1954-2015;

Illegal and unconstitutional arrests of Blacks during the Civil Rights movement;

Jim Crow laws enacted at the state and local levels and ignored at the federal level;

The implications of the CIA linked crack epidemic in Black communities; and

Disenfranchised Hurricane Katrina victims living below the poverty line.

I cite these examples to address an argument often used against the American government
making reparations to the descendants of enslaved Africans: the people who committed the
crimes against the enslaved, and those who immediately survived the crime of slavery, are no
longer alive, therefore, money being paid out is unnecessary. Boiled down, it is a statute of
limitations argument. At its heart lays the profound denial that the cumulative psychological

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trauma of slavery had an end date. That the trauma that affected those who were enslaved
wasnt passed down the generations. An inheritance of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. xx
A disorder further heightened during the Jim Crow Era and the trauma endured during the
struggles of the Civil Rights Movement. It is also said that federally funded programs such as
affirmative action, the welfare program, and similar initiatives were ways that reparations have
been paid.
To state that the federally funded programs are the way reparations have been paid is a slap in
the face. Why? Because not all African Americans have accessed, or utilized, the welfare
program. It is a proven fact that more Caucasian Americans have utilized this program than
African Americans. According to Statistics Brain, 38.8% of welfare recipients are white, while
39.8% of recipients are black. The remaining 21.4% is a combination of Hispanics, Asians and
other nationalities. But when you look at the percentage of those receiving food stamps, White
Americans receive a whopping 40.2% while African Americans are 25.7% the remaining makes
up the other nationalities.
The bottom line is, however, the fact that a promise was made 151 years ago to give over
400,000 acres of land stretching from South Carolina to Florida to the freed slaves. This was a
promise retracted by the then President of the United States, Andrew Johnson. Honoring this
promise should make America at least want to keep its word. National honor should be reason
enough.

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End Notes

Thomas Aquinas, In Libros Ethicorum Aristotelis Expositio, Lib. I, lect. 1. Man is by

nature a social animal, since he stands in need of many vital things which he cannot
come by through his own unaided effort (Avicenna). Hence he is naturally part of a
group by which assistance is given him that he may live well. He needs this assistance
with a view to life as well as to the good life.
i

Rev. John Nienstedt. Family as the foundation of culture, Legatus. 2 September

2013. Last accessed 17 June 2016 via http://legatus.org/family-as-the-foundation-ofculture/#_ftn1.
ii

A.A. Mohamad. Address to Symposium Commemorating the International Day of

Families, United Nations, New York, 18 May 2009.
iii

Reparations for Slavery, Constitutional Rights Foundation. Last accessed 21 June

2016 via http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/reparations-for-slaveryreading.html.
iv

Edward E. Baptist. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of
American Capitalism, Basic Books, New York. 2014.
v

Octavia Victoria Rogers. The house of bondage, or, Charlotte Brooks and other
slaves, original and life like, as they appeared in their old plantation and city slave life:
together with pen-pictures of the peculiar institution, with sights and insights into their
new relations as freedmen, freemen, and citizens, Hunt & Eaton, New York. 1890. Last
accessed 17 June 2016 via
http://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16998coll17/id/9976.
vi

United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner Reports. Last
accessed 17 June 2016 via
http://ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Racism/WGAfricanDescent/Pages/CountryVisits.aspx ;
vii

The Freedmens Bureau Bank Records via

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1417695 ; and
The Freedmens Bureau Office Reports
https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/African_American_Freedmen's_Bureau_Records .
Dr Donald R. Wright. Slavery in Africa, Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia.
2000. Last accessed 17 Jun2 2016 via
http://autocww.colorado.edu/~toldy3/E64ContentFiles/AfricanHistory/SlaveryInAfrica.ht
ml.
viii

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James Wilkinson. Michigan high schoolers caught on video wanting to bring back
slavery, The Daily Mail. 2 June 2016. Last accessed 21 June 2016 via
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3622080/Appalling-moment-white-Michiganhigh-school-students-talk-bringing-slavery-BRANDING-worthless-black-people-2040presidential-campaign.html.
ix

J. D. Allen-Taylor. Tracking the ghosts of Edgefield County, South Carolina

Progressive Network. 1996. Last accessed 21 June 2016 via
. http://www.scpronet.com/point/9606/p10.html.
x

Todd Lewan, Dolores Barclay and Allen G. Breed. Land ownership made blacks
targets of violence and murder, Authentic Voice. 2001. Last accessed 21 June 2016 via
http://theauthenticvoice.org/mainstories/tornfromtheland/torn_part2 .
xi

xii

International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki, Last accessed 26 June 2016

http://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA .
xiii

Rootsweb, Last accessed 26 June 2016 via http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgibin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=wgbrooks&id=I6325 .

Canefight! Preston Brooks and Charles Sumner, U.S. Online History Textbook.
Last accessed 7 August 2013 via http://www.ushistory.org/us/31a.asp.
xiv

xv

Marius R. Robinson. Anti-Slavery Bugle. 1 Nov. 1856 (via Chronicling America:

Historic American Newspapers). Last accessed 25 January 2014 via
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1856-11-01/ed-1/seq-1/ .
Gloria R. Lucas. Slave Records of Edgefield County, South Carolina. Edgefield
County Historical Society, Edgefield County, South Carolina. 2010, p. 55-56.
xvi

xvii

Ibid.

Boundless. Women and Slavery. Boundless U.S. History. Boundless, 26 May.

2016. Retrieved 21 June 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/u-shistory/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/slavery-in-the-antebellum-u-s-18201840-16/slavery-in-the-u-s-122/women-and-slavery-657-9221/
xviii

xix

NPR, http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/09/210138278/japaneseinternment-redress last accessed 26 June 2016

Joy Angela DeGruy. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Joy DeGruy Publications,
Inc. 2009.
xx

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