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ABSTRACT: This article briefly reviews African American history including the "Middle Passage" from Africa, the arrival of slaves in the United States, the psychological meaning of slavery, the expansion of slavery from a narrow strip of worn out tobacco plantations in Maryland and Virginia to the south and west from the 1790's to the 1860's, the labor control practices used to double the slaves' output of cotton. Reconstruction and its aborted promises, the migration of 6 million black southerners to the North over six decades (1915 to 1970), and the Civil Rights Movement, in order to see if HR 40, which calls for a Congressional study of slavery, its lingering effects, and appropriate remedies, should be considered.
INTRODUCTION
For the past 26 years Congressman John Conyers, Jr. has introduced a bill (HR 40) calling for a Congressional study of slavery and its lingering effects as well as recommendations for "appropriate remedies," but HR 40 has never made it to the House floor (Coates, 2014, p. 6-8).
However, a headline on the front page of the Sunday New York Times of 4/17/16 read: "Georgetown Confronts Its Role in Nation's Slave Trade: What Does the University Owe Descendants of 272 Slaves?" The college relied on Jesuit plantations in Maryland to help finance its operations, and in 1838 the 272 slaves referred to in the headline were sold. Researchers have used archival records to follow the footsteps of the slaves, "from the Jesuit plantations in Maryland, to the docks of New Orleans, to three plantations west and south of Baton Rouge, LA." (Swarns, 2016). There may be thousands of living descendants. Georgetown was considering "whether the university should apologize for profiting from slave labor, create a memorial to those enslaved and provide scholarships for their descendants, among other possibilities" (Swarns, 2016). On 9/1/16 Georgetown's president, John J. DeGioia, announced that he would offer a formal apology, create an institute for the study of slavery, erect a public memorial to the slaves whose labor benefited the institution, rename two campus buildings which had originally been named for the two college presidents who had been involved in the 1838 sale, and offer an advantage in admissions to descendants similar to that offered to the children and grandchildren of...