Lawrence: In those times…

Lawrence: In those times and places, homesteading didn’t apply.

What do you mean when you say “homesteading didn’t apply”? Are you using homesteading in the same sense that I am, i.e., original appropriation of an unowned or abandoned resource by personal occupancy and honest labor? If not, what do you mean? If so, why wouldn’t original appropriation of an unowned or abandoned parcel of land by personal occupancy and honest labor (which the slaves, but not the slave-drivers, satisfied) “apply” in the American South during the period of emancipation from 1863-1866?

Lawrence: Coming along afterwards and imposing those rules instead would have been a separate injustice (since two wrongs don’t make a right).

A separate injustice against whom? The slave-drivers? On what possible grounds would they have a legitimate proprietary claim to the land in question?

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