Steven P. McNicoll wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

Money.


What money did the slaves have?

Frederick Douglass and other slaves who worked for wages
had the money they earned, which was turned over to their
owners.

Those who worked for their owners and were not paid wages
would be compensated for the market value of their labor.

Perhaps you are hung up on pedantry turning on the use
of 'returned'. What was taken from them was labor, what
ostensibly would be returned would be money equivalent to
the market value of that labor.

An alternative proposal (from the TV show _The West Wing_)
is to 'return' the value of their labor via income tax credits, also
impractical, IMHO.

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FF