News & Politics - Slave Descendants File $1B Lawsuit

mh67511 · 03-29-2004, 10:41 PM

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ations_lawsuit

Quote:

Slave Descendants File $1B Lawsuit

NEW YORK - Descendants of slaves filed a $1 billion lawsuit Monday against U.S. and British corporations, accusing them of profiting by committing genocide against their ancestors.

Lawyers for the eight plaintiffs said the complaint was the first slave reparations lawsuit to use DNA to link the plaintiffs to Africans who suffered atrocities during the slave trade.

The suit filed in federal court in Manhattan accuses Lloyd's of London, FleetBoston and R.J. Reynolds of "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide" by allegedly financing and insuring the ships that delivered slaves to tobacco plantations in the United States.

The defendants "have destroyed our national and ethnic identity," one of the plaintiffs, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, said at a news conference announcing the suit.

DNA testing has made a "direct connection" between Farmer-Paellmann and the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone, whose people "were kidnapped, tortured and shipped in chains to the United States," the suit said.

Scientific evidence also has linked the other plaintiffs to tribes in Niger and Gambia, the suit said.

Ellen Matthews, a spokeswoman for R.J. Reynolds, said the company had not received a copy of the suit. Calls to the other defendants were not immediately returned.

In January, a federal judge in Chicago threw out a similar lawsuit brought by descendants of slaves.

*Lauren · 03-29-2004, 11:54 PM

Just a question, but how can they destroy an African national identy, when no such nation has ever existed? Or ever existed?

*Sarah Marie* · 03-30-2004, 12:01 AM

Not too sure what to think about that... I mean, slavery was a horrible thing, I hate that its part of history.. but thats just what it is.. its history.. I don*t understand why someone living now... should get all this money when nothing happened to them. I mean, I realize their ancestors were probally treated horribly, but these people today aren*t slaves.. why do they get tons of money?? *Just my thought*

migamoo · 03-30-2004, 02:25 AM

i agree with the aboved post. why do these people need all this money? were they tortured and beaten? no. sure, they ancestors were, and i am sorry for that, but i don't think that means they deserve money. besides, what's the money going to do anyway? it's not like it's going to change what happened or make things all better. are these people really traumatized that their relatives before them were slaves? i really think these people are just out for money.

ashley

Katis · 03-30-2004, 10:49 AM

If these people were slaves, then I would say definitely, they deserve some sort of reparations. However slavery in the U.S. ended over a hundred years ago. No one alive here today was kidnapped from Africa and brought over here to be sold into slavery, or born into slavery. They don't deserve reparations for something that happened to their ancestors. It was horrible but they didn't live it.

And interesting that no one mentions it wasn't even these corporations that kidnapped the Africans. It was their own people and members of other tribes who took them and sold them to the Europeans.

*Juli* · 03-30-2004, 11:05 AM

I don't agree with descendants getting money. Half of my ancestors were Chinese. Back in WW2, they put Asian people in concentration camps because they thought all Asians might be spies for the government. They lost EVERYTHING they owned.

It's not quite to the exact same thing but their money, houses, etc were taken away from them and they were put in camps, which was basically jail, for the term of the war. Just because they were Asian. They didn't get any compensation. Relatives of those affected didn't get any compensation.

Unless you actually had this happen to YOU, I don't think any money should be paid out. The people of today CANNOT be held responsible for what their ancestors did so I really don't think this lawsuit is justified.

This is only going to open the floodgates.