Lincoln signed a bill in 1862 that paid up to $300 for every enslaved person freed.
By Tera W. Hunter
Dr. Hunter, a professor of American history and African-American studies, specializes in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Library of Congress/Corbis, via VCG, via Getty Images
On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill emancipating enslaved people in Washington, the end of a long struggle. But to ease slaveowners’ pain, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act paid those loyal to the Union up to $300 for every enslaved person freed.
That’s right, slaveowners got reparations. Enslaved African-Americans got nothing for their generations of stolen bodies, snatched children and expropriated labor other than their mere release from legal bondage.
The compensation clause is not likely to be celebrated today. But as the debate about reparations for slavery intensifies, it is important to remember that slaveowners, far more than enslaved people, were always the primary beneficiaries of public largess.
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