Comments Elsewhere

Kennedy:

Being long dead, the slaves cannot be compensated and their masters cannot pay.

As an historical note, the era of chattel slavery was not the last time that Black people in the United States had their rights to person and property systematically violated. Lots of people living today remember government-enforced Jim Crow.

Kennedy:

Because B’s property is not anyone else’s. Only B’s rights are at stake. If you rob my parents you’ve violated their rights, but not mine because I had no right to their property.

If you murder my parents, do I (as an heir) have the right to demand compensatory damages for wrongful death?