Roots Rising

Should the descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States receive reparations for the historical injustice of slavery and the persistent racial discrimination they face today? I contend that the United States bears a moral duty to compensate those whose families suffered under slavery and its enduring legacy, much as it did for Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Economist William A. Darity of Duke University has argued that such reparations are essential to narrowing the racial wealth gap created by centuries of government-sanctioned discrimination.

A 2023 Federal Reserve report highlights a stark gap that remains between Black and White wealth accumulation. According to the report, the median wealth of white families is roughly six times greater than that of Black families. Between 2019 and 2022, although African American earnings rose, the disparity in net worth continued to grow. In 2022, the median household wealth for white families stood at about $285,000, compared to just $44,900 for African American households. This is not coincidental but the product of both historic and ongoing barriers to building intergenerational wealth.

Slavery lies at the heart of this gap. Enslaved people generated immense profits but were forbidden to own any of it. Slaveholders treated human beings as collateral, using them to secure loans, buy more land, and expand plantations. By the 1850s, the monetary value of enslaved people in the U.S. exceeded the combined worth of all railroads, factories, and banks. Cotton—picked entirely by forced labor—became the nation’s most lucrative export, enriching Southern planters, Northern textile mills, financiers, and European manufacturers alike.

Banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wachovia further profited by financing slave traders, accepting enslaved people as collateral, and collecting repayments when slaves were bought and sold. Insurance companies such as New York Life and Aetna underwrote voyages, reimbursing owners for enslaved lives lost or thrown overboard—as in the infamous 1781 Zong massacre, when insurers paid claims after 130 Africans were cast into the sea. These institutions funneled vast sums into the financial system, creating generational wealth for white Americans.

After emancipation, the advantages of slavery were largely preserved. White landowners retained vast estates, while freed Black people were systematically blocked from land ownership. Under the 1862 Homestead Act, millions of acres were granted to white settlers; formerly enslaved individuals were largely excluded. Over the following decades, Jim Crow laws at the state and local levels further entrenched white supremacy, denying African Americans equal economic, educational, and political opportunities well into the mid-20th century.

Despite these injustices, opposition to reparations remains strong. A 2002 poll found only 4 percent of white Americans supported monetary reparations, compared to 67 percent of African Americans. Critics often point to gaps in historical records as a barrier to identifying eligible recipients. Yet a wealth of sources—post-1870 U.S. Census data, Freedmen’s Bureau documents, plantation archives, church and cemetery registers—can help trace lineage back to those who were enslaved.

These records have already enabled many African Americans to document their ancestry. America has a moral responsibility, the same it has shown in redressing other historic wrongs, to provide reparations by helping to close the racial wealth gap that slavery and discrimination created and still perpetuate.

By Roland McFadden, MA

Sources:

Ray, R. & Perry, A. (2020). Why we need reparations for Black Americans. Brookings Institution.

Darity Jr., W., Craemer, T., Berry, D. R., & Francis, D. (2024). Black

Reparations in the United States, 2024: An Introduction, RSF, 10(2), 1-28.