In recent years, talks about reparations for African Americans have surfaced in political forums and online discussions. During the time of this writing, it was recently reported by NBC News in an online article entitled U.S. is one of three countries to vote against U.N. resolution calling slavery a crime against humanity’ by Associated Press, cites:
“The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans “the gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations as “a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs.”
The vote in the 193-member world body was 123-3, with 52 abstentions. Argentina, Israel, and the United States were the three members voting against the resolution. The United Kingdom and all 27 members of the European Union were among those that abstained.
While the United States opposes the past wrongdoing of the transatlantic slave trade and all other forms of slavery, it “does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred,” deputy U.S. ambassador Dan Negrea said before the vote.”
The words of U.S. Ambassador Dan Negrea are grossly in error, as America is a young nation that is growing just like every other teenager. Regardless of age, murder has been a crime since the birth of humanity. And if a growing nation has an immature worldview, it too must be corrected and disciplined.
Sadly, Dan Negrea’s comments are not even consistent with U.S. History and its legal perspectives on slavery in America. For the descendants of the victims of the colonial holocaust, the first step in achieving reparations is to review the origins of the concept. Let’s begin by talking about Major General William Tecumseh Sherman.
During Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s “March to the Sea” in 1865, he issued a Special Field Order (No.15) providing that land (and sometimes Army mules) be given to freed slaves. By June 1865, about 10,000 freed slaves were settled on 400,000 acres in Georgia and South Carolina. When Democrat Andrew Johnson ascended to the presidency after Lincoln’s assassination, he countermanded Sherman’s orders and returned the land to its previous white owners. On February 5, 1866, U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican from Pennsylvania, introduced legislation to implement 40 acres and a mule as official policy, but this legislation was successfully opposed by Johnson.
The expression “40 acres and a mule” began not as a hope, but as a legal course of action that was once a part of the Republican Party’s policies before it became corrupt. This action was necessary as America’s slave owning population was all members of the Democratic Party. This means that the best position a descendant of those affected by the colonial slave trade would be one of political independence. Calling yourself a democrat and then seeking reparations for slavery when all the slaveowners were democrats is equivalent to the definition of insanity. This is why Malcolm X, in his famous 1964 speech titled The Ballot or the Bullet is noted as saying the following:
“In Washington D.C., in the House of Representatives, there are 257 who are Democrats. Only 177 are Republican. In the Senate, there are 67 Democrats, only 33 are Republicans. The party that you backed controls two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and still, they can’t keep their promise to you, because you’re a chump. Anytime you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that party can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you’re dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that party, you are not only a chump, but you’re a traitor to your race.”
Malcolm X understood the tricknology at play. And since the Republican Party is now equally corrupt, allegiance to this political party is not even a short-term solution. In fact, the United States recent rejection of the U.N.’s resolution to recognize the colonial slave trade as a crime against humanity was led by a Republican administration. Be independent.
Traitors of the so-called Black race refuse to use Special Field Order (No.15) as a precedent for reparations, as they are more in love with the political party that enslaved them and follows their slave masters in its oversight of this valuable legal precedent. What good is a new African American holiday when a victory in the fight for reparations is not celebrated? Your leaders have a lot of explaining to do. Our aim should be to make Special Field Order (No. 15) a day to be celebrated as a holiday. Penned on January 16th, 1865, Special Field Order (No. 15) reads:
I. The islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.
II. At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine and Jacksonville, the blacks may remain in their chosen or accustomed vocations–but on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to be established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and exclusive management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves, subject only to the United States military authority and the acts of Congress. By the laws of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the negro is free and must be dealt with as such. He cannot be subjected to conscription or forced military service, save by the written orders of the highest military authority of the Department, under such regulations as the President or Congress may prescribe. Domestic servants, blacksmiths, carpenters and other mechanics, will be free to select their own work and residence, but the young and able-bodied negroes must be encouraged to enlist as soldiers in the service of the United States, to contribute their share towards maintaining their own freedom, and securing their rights as citizens of the United States.
Negroes so enlisted will be organized into companies, battalions and regiments, under the orders of the United States military authorities, and will be paid, fed and clothed according to law. The bounties paid on enlistment may, with the consent of the recruit, go to assist his family and settlement in procuring agricultural implements, seed, tools, boots, clothing, and other articles necessary for their livelihood.
III. Whenever three respectable negroes, heads of families, shall desire to settle on land, and shall have selected for that purpose an island or a locality clearly defined, within the limits above designated, the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations will himself, or by such subordinate officer as he may appoint, give them a license to settle such island or district, and afford them such assistance as he can to enable them to establish a peaceable agricultural settlement. The three parties named will subdivide the land, under the supervision of the Inspector, among themselves and such others as may choose to settle near them, so that each family shall have a plot of not more than (40) forty acres of tillable ground, and when it borders on some water channel, with not more than 800 feet water front, in the possession of which land the military authorities will afford them protection, until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their title. The Quartermaster may, on the requisition of the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, place at the disposal of the Inspector, one or more of the captured steamers, to ply between the settlements and one or more of the commercial points heretofore named in orders, to afford the settlers the opportunity to supply their necessary wants, and to sell the products of their land and labor.
IV. Whenever a negro has enlisted in the military service of the United States, he may locate his family in any one of the settlements at pleasure, and acquire a homestead, and all other rights and privileges of a settler, as though present in person. In like manner, negroes may settle their families and engage on board the gunboats, or in fishing, or in the navigation of the inland waters, without losing any claim to land or other advantages derived from this system. But no one, unless an actual settler as above defined, or unless absent on Government service, will be entitled to claim any right to land or property in any settlement by virtue of these orders.
V. In order to carry out this system of settlement, a general officer will be detailed as Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, whose duty it shall be to visit the settlements, to regulate their police and general management, and who will furnish personally to each head of a family, subject to the approval of the President of the United States, a possessory title in writing, giving as near as possible the description of boundaries; and who shall adjust all claims or conflicts that may arise under the same, subject to the like approval, treating such titles altogether as possessory. The same general officer will also be charged with the enlistment and organization of the negro recruits, and protecting their interests while absent from their settlements; and will be governed by the rules and regulations prescribed by the War Department for such purposes.
VI. Brigadier General R. SAXTON is hereby appointed Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, and will at once enter on the performance of his duties. No change is intended or desired in the settlement now on Beaufort [Port Royal] Island, nor will any rights to property heretofore acquired be affected thereby.
BY ORDER OF MAJOR GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN:
