Slave Reparations free essay sample

A debate whether reparations should be paid to the descendants of slaves in America. The paper discusses the significance of reparations to descendants of slaves and presents arguments and reasons for and against it. Some of the issues include the effects of slavery, the difficulty of identifying who is a descendant of a slave and whether it is fair for a nation to pay for the crimes that were committed hundreds of years ago. Legal issues are discussed. The battle for reparations first emerged at the conclusion of the Civil War, when President Andrew Johnson reneged on Union Army Gen. William T. Shermans promise that freed slaves would receive 40 acres and a mule. In 1989 President George Bush signed a law providing reparations for Japanese-Americans interned in camps in the U.S. during World War II.