...although there is no one alive today that has kept slaves, and no one alive that was a slave, ...

I feel pretty slighted.

Half my ancestors got here in chains (Thanks for the ride James II). It is a little talked about fact that African slaves were more expensive during the late 1600s (50 Sterling) Irish slaves were cheap (no more than 5 Sterling). The other half were starved into getting on the boats in the 1840's . . . in any case, I think it is racist and biggoted for Congress to only appologize to the descendants of salves of African origin. As if the chains on Irish wrists were lighter and the whips used on Irish backs were softer somehow. Pretty insulting and offensive.

I think you mean to say that, in the U.S.A., there is no one alive today that has legally kept slaves and no one alive that was a legally- kept slave. Those organizations who track such things, say that there are more slaves in the world today, then there has ever been before. While not legal in most places, slavery still exists, even in America.

I believe the "apology" is for the institutionalized slavery that was part and parcel for many southern and some western states prior to 1863 and the Emancipation Proclamation. Under the terms specified by the bill, my comment still appears valid that there are no former slaves nor former slave holders alive today.

I further believe that I read somewhere that Minnesota sent a large contingent of soldiers to fight for the Union against the Confederacy, and among the issues of that Civil War was the issue of institutionalized and legalized slavery. Somewhere off of the Summit Boulevard and John Ireland Boulevard nexus is some sort of statuary monument to a couple of Minnesota soldiers that might have died in that kerfuffle. I doubt that the bill that Ms. Klobuchar is co-authoring deals with an apology for Minnesota sending those soldiers to fight some 140 odd years ago.

many people died in a war that was directly related to the abolition of slavery in the United States of America