The Cost of Inheritance

THE COST OF INHERITANCE, an America ReFramed special, explores the complex issue of reparations in the U.S. using a thoughtful approach to history, historical injustices, systemic inequities, and critical dialogue on racial conciliation. Through personal narratives, community inquiries, and scholarly insights, it aims to inspire understanding of the scope and rationale of the reparations debate.

THE COST OF INHERITANCE, an America ReFramed special, explores the complex issue of reparations in the U.S. using a thoughtful approach to history, historical injustices, systemic inequities, and critical dialogue on racial conciliation. Through personal narratives, community inquiries, and scholarly insights, it aims to inspire understanding of the scope and rationale of the reparations debate.

In 2019, Sarah Eisner discovered acres of land that her ancestor, George Adam Keller, granted to enslaved Zeke Quarterman in the 1800s. But the title of ownership was never legally given. Eisner connected with Quarterman's descendant, Randy, who at first doubted the proposition, and they are now working together to right history's wrongs.

Beginning in the 1800s, the reparations movement started with Mrs. Callie House, who led the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association. Historian Mary Frances Berry tells of House's efforts to organize Black Americans to ask for compensation from the government and the backlash against her that would not slow the activist down until her death.

Through her ancestry, the harm they created in slavery, and the privilege it has granted her, Lotte Lieb Dula found Briayna Cuffie in her work on reparations. The two work together to tell their own stories and teach Americans about what they can do to repair their history. What they also share is the wealth gap between Black and white Americans that began with slavery and continues today.

For the GU 272 Descendants Association, the sale of each of their ancestors as slaves is personal. They gathered together to confront the ugly truth, including meeting with the Maryland Province Jesuits and Georgetown University, who were involved in this history, and explaining why they deserve representation in conversations like Georgetown's Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation Working Group.