People never seem to ask how did these big plantation owners get all that land in the first place? Most people assume they bought it - but they are wrong.

I was curious enough to track down the answer to that question. Turns out that before the revolutionary war European kings gave huge parcels of land away for free to colonists who did their bidding. These land grants - aka gifts of free land - were the basis upon which wealth was built in America.

Both George Washington's and Thomas Jefferson's estates started with free land given by the king, and passed down through inheritance (hence the oft heard accusation of aristocrats applied to both men in their time).

Both Washington and Jefferson added to their personal wealth by securing surveying contracts from the federal government. While surveying land, both men identified the best land for themselves and acquired title before their surveys were made public.

Of course, all the land Kings gave away was stolen from Native Americans, so that must be calculated as well.

Today, tens of millions of acres of land are under the control of the Bureau of Land Management, National and State Parks and other federal, and state agencies. Currently, corporations lease drilling, mining and usage rights to oil, Borox, gold, minerals, cement, water, damns, rangeland for cattle, etc. I think its time to begin returning management of these lands to their rightful owners - Native Americans.

Harvard University is currently using their slave generated wealth socked away deep in its endowments to purchase water rights in drought stricken California. These water rights will make millions for Harvard at the expense of the poorest people in the state. This is the kind of shit that happens when we keep slave generated wealth in the hands of big capitalists.

Its time to level the playing field by demanding reparations be paid by those who are still profiting from it.