REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY - TO DESCENDANTS OF SLAVE OWNERS?

     Today in Congress, demands were heard for reparations to the descendants of slaves for the horrors that their ancestors endured.  Several Democratic candidates running for President in 2020 have endorsed the idea - Corey Booker, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and possible others.  Let us consider the proposal.
    There were approximately 4 million slaves in the US in 1860.  Lincoln pushed for a compensated plan to free slaves in the District of Columbia, whereby the owners of about 1,000 slaves received $300 per slave from the Federal Government.  The other owners were not paid for their loss.  Indeed, one may contend that the most massive confiscation of private property by the US Government occurred during and after the American Civil War with the abolition of slavery.  Even if one accepts the deflated rate at $300 per slave, 300 times 4,000,000 meant that the owners, chiefly in the South, lost through government confiscation $1,200,000,000 as well thousands of dead soldiers and wounded veterans, and the war, burnt houses, destroyed barns, and other losses.  The South was, like Tara in Gone with the Wind, a relic at war's end.  It was difficult, even with the grit of Scarlet, to rebuild the society.  Even when rail lines were rebuilt, Northern corporations discriminated against the South (and the West) to expand industry in the North.  The South remained the poorest part of the nation for a century.
     Is it not time to rectify this injustice?  Is it not time to pay reparations, with a small interest rate, to the descendants of the slave owners (some of the slave owners were Black, by the way)?
     The freed slaves did receive help from the Federal Government at that time.  The Freedmen's Bureau was established to help the new citizens.  Religious groups in the North sent teachers South to help the former slaves, and the beginnings of the historically Black colleges and universities often have their origins during this period.  In the impoverished South, a semi-civil war would continue during Reconstruction, as some Blacks had served in the Union Army and had weapons, and white veterans of the CSA also had weapons.  The campaign song of the national Democratic Party in 1868 included lines, "We are the White Man's party."  The winning, wealthy North would determine the fate of the South.
     Slavery still exists in several nations in Africa, from Mauritania to South Sudan up to Libya.  Afro-Americans are probably, as a group, the richest Blacks, the free-est Blacks, the ones with the best health and dental care, highest literacy, number of autos, tv's, etc.  They should be thankful that their ancestors were sold away from their homelands and they ended in America.  And it is noteworthy that just last week, several hundred Africans were discovered crossing the border from Mexico into the US as illegal aliens. Some had walked from Colombia, in South America, up to the US border. If the US were so racist, and oppressive, why would Africans go to such trouble to get into the USA?
    Hugh Murray