State ownership of slaves could impact Ga. debate

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Several Georgia lawmakers have opposed efforts to issue an official state apology for slavery, but they could be swayed knowing their predecessors authorized the state purchase of slaves, a legislator said.

As state lawmakers debate issuing an official apology for slavery similar to those passed by the Virginia Legislature and the North Carolina Senate, an Associated Press review of 19th-century records kept by the Digital Library of Georgia at the University of Georgia shows the state’s role went beyond regulating and taxing slave owners. Georgia bought and sold slaves as well.

Knowing this might sway some legislators who have been reluctant to support an apology for the sins of long-dead Southern planters and industrialists, said state Sen. Eric Johnson, the top-ranking Republican in the GOP-controlled Senate.

“Some resist expressing any sort of apology because they or their family weren’t involved,” said Johnson, the Senate’s president pro-tem. “If the state actually did buy and sell and own slaves, that may make it more comfortable for people in the state to express regret over slavery.”

Needing workers to build roads and improve river transportation in 1829, Georgia lawmakers authorized spending $50,000 to buy a state-owned labor force of 190 “able bodied” slaves.

The Legislature’s foray into government slaveholding, at least on a large scale, proved short-lived. By 1834, the state sold its slaves — along with horses, mules, wagons and tools — for $117,464.

State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, an Atlanta Democrat who heads the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, said the state’s slave-owning history “makes a huge difference” in the apology debate.

“It was absolutely the government participating as an active partner — the government itself, rather than individuals,” Brooks said.

Some state Republican leaders have expressed skepticism recently about issuing an apology.

“People shouldn’t be held responsible for the sins of their fathers,” state Senate majority leader Tommie Williams said last month. He declined to be interviewed last Friday, referring calls to Johnson.

State House Speaker Glen Richardson said last month he was “not sure what we ought to be apologizing for.” His office said last Friday he was vacationing and unavailable for comment.

Johnson said he only recently discovered the state had owned slaves. He said he’s been working with fellow Republicans and black Democrats to try to craft a statement with broad enough support to pass the Legislature before it adjourns for the year, likely by late April.

The Georgia debate comes on the heels of the Virginia Legislature’s February resolution expressing “profound regret” for its role in slavery. The North Carolina Senate approved a similar resolution last Thursday acknowledging the state’s “profound contrition for the official acts that sanctioned and perpetuated the denial of basic human rights and dignity to fellow humans,” most notably the practices of slavery and “Jim Crow” segregation.

“This is a way to reflect upon this and express our understanding and our regret for official actions of our state,” said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Democrat and the bill’s primary sponsor.

Such an apology, Rand added, will help us “to try to be better children of God and better representatives of all the people of this state.”

The resolution recounts a long history of discrimination against North Carolina’s black population, from the first slaves in the British colony of “Carolina” in 1669 through the Civil War and then Jim Crow laws that promoted inequality into the mid-1900s.

“The state went out of its way to deny its people the right to life and liberty,” said Democratic Sen. Tony Foriest, who is black and recalled during the Senate’s debate the segregation he experienced as a child.

The North Carolina House has to approve the measure for it to be formalized.

Black members of the Senate said they were pleased to see the resolution pass, but added that lawmakers also need to help improve the quality of life of blacks who still suffer from the effects of slavery and discrimination. They called for improvements to the state’s education system and giving black-owned businesses more access to state contracts.

“This is a noble gesture, but I urge you, don’t let it end here,” said Democratic Sen. Larry Shaw. “There’s plenty of work to be done.”

As the national debate on slavery apologies continues, lawmakers in Missouri are considering similar legislation.

AP Writer Gary D. Robertson contributed to this report.

(Associated Press)