Resentful lefties are making a new push for reparations. My own research reveals they know nothing about American history

The push is back on for slavery reparations.In July, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued a report urging the immediate adoption of reparations.As Lanessa Owens-Chaplin — one of the report’s authors and Director of the Racial Justice Center at NYCLU — puts it: “Reparations are a debt that is owed.

Enslaved Black people built the foundation of New York’s economy… Reparations must be extended to all Black New Yorkers descended from those enslaved by New York State.”The NYCLU report is predicated on an undeniable reality: the persistent wealth gap between black and white households.But all this fails to grapple with the central problem of reparation payments: Not all white New Yorkers benefited from slavery, but all New Yorkers would have to shell out to support the payments.I uncovered the complications of the issue when, as part of a local America 250 project, I researched the history of slavery in my own Westchester County suburb.

The town of Rye was once an agricultural village on the shores of the Long Island Sound.Small family farms stood side-by-side larger estates on which the enslaved labored, raising beef cattle and produce bound for the Manhattan market.

Here’s the complication: Slave ownership among white people was far from universal.Of 130 slaves present in the town in 1790, 68 were owned by only six families — including the family of John Jay, the country’s first chief justice and a leading abolitionist.

Moreover, households that did not own slaves at all (163) were far greater in number than those that did (42).Most white townspeople, in fact, were poor.

Seventy-seven households were listed as owning only “house and lot.” Their tiny properties were worth less than $500, or around $10,000 adjusted for inflation.Some were worth as little as $60 — about $1,000 today.There were also wealthy landowners who did not engage in slavery at all — including, notably, a family of Quakers.

That family’s members all...