Lace on Race

Racial Equity Anti Hero: Federal Government

Intro to Series: laceonrace.com/2021/02/04/racial-equity-anti-hero-series/

Tiffany Washington talks her shit from the backwoods of Alabama. Her work appears on Facebook because she’s already been rejected by The Root.

Oh, you thought only people were getting called to the carpet. Nah, fam. People, businesses, governments: anything and everything can catch a drag in February.
Today, in Black History, we remind you that some slaves did receive reparations.
Oh wait, my bad. What I meant to say is that some slave owners received compensated emancipation.
In 1862, everyone’s favorite white savior (Honest Abe ‘lets send them back to Africa’ Lincoln) signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act.
The short explanation is that DC slave owners had to free their slaves. In turn, the slave…..owners would be compensated up to $300 per slave. You know….for loss of labor.
That translates to up to $5500 per slave in today’s dollars.
Over 900 petitions were submitted, and over 2000 slaves freed.
So, so kind of our federal government to compensate slave owners for their loss of wages. Home of the mutha-fuckin brave, y’all.
*Edit – a few people have reached out to me regarding the $1500 number. Some have put it around $7000 and some have put it around $4000. I’ll change it to $5500 just cause it’s close to the the middle. It’s not the point of this post, but still important. $5000 is a lot of money to most. Feel free to cut me a check if you want.*
#TodayinBlackHistory

-Tiffany Washington

Collaborating Writers

5 responses to “Racial Equity Anti Hero: Federal Government”

  1. Emily Holzknecht Avatar
    Emily Holzknecht

    It’s not lost on me that former slave owners both were compensated by the government AND then continued to find ways to exploit Black labor and keep themselves as the determiners of Black life and death after receiving said compensation. And today the descendants of slave owners and the descendants of those who benefited from slavery continue to exploit Black labor and determine Black life and death. As I continue to pay reparations, I will add that money that went to former slave owners onto the tab of money owed to Black people.

  2. Emily Holzknecht Avatar
    Emily Holzknecht

    Pointing out that Black people’s money (through taxes) was going to compensate slave owners on the one hand really shows the adding of insult onto injury aspect of the whole thing…and at the same time, it’s not any different today. We still funnel money out of Black communities to compensate their oppressors and to compensate those who exploit Black labor.

  3. Rebecca McClinton Avatar
    Rebecca McClinton

    I recently learned about this in the last year…how slave owners were ‘compensated’ for slaves they no longer owned. It’s sickening, but I must also hold that while I point fingers at that, I too have benefited from the economic constructs of racism, again and again.

  4. Lee Carney Avatar
    Lee Carney

    This doesn’t come as a surprise since I discovered the UK has only just finished paying off its debt to slave owners in 2015. We are all dispensable to those in power. The only little bit of power we have is our money because it seems even when we vote we get the same flavour.

  5. Christina Sonas Avatar
    Christina Sonas

    It’s both not surprising and surprising that at least two governments — Haiti and the UK — were paying off the loans they took to compensate enslavers for the elimination of their enslaved labor force for more than a century after their particular emancipations. Haiti finished in the 1940s or 50s, so coinciding with the colonial independence movement. But the UK continued into the 21st century, and I can’t find evidence of any significant disruptions to that. Black Britons were paying taxes that were going to a bank to pay off an almost 200-year-old loan made to white people so they would stop being (literal) enslavers. That’s a loan that should have been cancelled decades ago, by both the bank and the UK government. This same government financial protection of racist businesses and institutions still happens today; I need to track it down and stop supporting those places, and lobby the government to stop it too.

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