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I, Senator Newton of Massachusetts, have agreed with the terms as presented in the supposed bill to redistribute property to those former slaves who had worked the very land for decades. Although this is sure to be a controversial and radical issue, I assure you that you will find many other well noted colleagues of various institutions in favor of this proposal as well. To not respect the wishes of these freedmen who threw themselves body and soul into working our country’s land would be, as J. McKaye, a spokesmen for the freedmen’s association put it, “ the basis of the most permanent and oppressive societies.” America, is a democracy and with this comes equality, therefore, acceptance of this bill is a natural choice for all those living in the land of the free.

Perhaps one of the greatest arguments to this proposition is very simply, why do former slaves need to be entitled to a piece of land? Many feel as though they should be satisfied with receiving pay for their services, and consider that in its self, equality. But as many African Americans found out, this system doesn’t exactly do them justice. Listen, if you will, to these pleas from Melton Linton, a recently freed man, who wrote to an editor complaining about his unfortunate situation he shares with so many countless others. “ I have seen men hired who were turned off without being paid. They try to pull us down faster than we can climb up. They have no reason to say that we will not work, for we raised them and sent them to school and bought their land. Now it is as little as they can do to give us some of their land –be it little or much.” Obviously this so called plan to just pay these hard workers for their deeds will not and does not always follow through. How can we trust these same wealthy plantation owners who abused these people to treat them fairly when money for their services is involved? There needs to be a greater form of retribution for this cause.

Today, America is soured by the racist attitudes of many of the white plantation owners of the south. Anti Supremacists such as my colleague Samuel Thomas discuss how ex confederates view Africans with a negative connotation. He writes, “ I hear the people talk in such a way as to indicate that they are yet unable to conceive of the Negro possessing any rights at all. Men who are honorable in their dealings with their white neighbors will cheat a Negro without feeling a single twinge of honor. To kill a Negro they do not deem murder; to debauch a Negro women they do not deem fornication; to take the property away from a Negro they do not consider to be robbery.” The very fact that the rich plantation owners of the south feel as though the former slaves do not count as human in any sense of the word is quite unsettling. These people possess flesh and blood, and have produced with their very hands the cash crops and rich soil of America. America could not have survived economically without the influence and work of these people. Therefore, it is clearly evident that we should in return for the work they have done for us give them a place to call their own.

Let us return back to a quote from our friend Melton Linton for a moment who says “ I hope soon to be called a citizen of the United States, and have the rights of a citizen.” All this man wants is to be apart of the country he worked so hard to help build. Does this seem like a deed we should be arguing over? Equality may be far off in the minds of many, but there is something that can be done to further this process. Let us give these freedmen their land, to cultivate, nurture, and most importantly have a sense of “home” in the country that they live in, America, home of the free.