Getting the metaphysical discussion going...
Plantation owner had slaves.
Having slaves was legal at the time.
Slaves declared free & owning slaves is now illegal.
War

To what point are the fruits of the slaves labor actually theirs? All the way back to the start of their labor? To the start of their ancestor's labor (if applicable)? Would it only go back to the declaration that slavery was now illegal? Or would it go back to the end of the war? (What if the South had won? Would they no longer have purview over the fruits of their labor, since the edict that slavery was illegal is null and void?) Would they have a right to their labor from the declaration that they are free?

There are plenty of lawyers on the site, so one of them may know, but how many generations does debt pass from parent to child? How many generations of estate are subject to the debts of an individual? And then I may be wrong, but I cannot be convicted of something or penalized for something that was not illegal when I was doing it, yes?

I'm not defending slavery in any way. But we were talking metaphysical issues, and I'm wondering where that line would be drawn. From my POV, we are blurring a moral issue with a legal one. That line is drawn for elective abortion...where many have a moral issue with it, but not a legal one. If abortion was all of a sudden declared illegal, one could not go back and penalize & prosecute Planned Parenthood for the millions of people they kill every year....

Thoughts?
~Jeordam