November 5, 2004

2 Books Take a New Look at the Question of Reparations for Slavery

By DAVID GLENN

ANCESTRAL TRIALS: In 1867 the radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens stood before his fellow members of Congress and pleaded for huge public reparations for the country's millions of recently freed slaves.

"They and their ancestors have toiled, not for years, but for ages, without one farthing of recompense," Representative Stevens said. "They have earned for their masters this very land and much more. Will not he who denies them compensation now be accursed, for he is an unjust

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