 This argument avoids the objection that the present black population would not exist if their ancestors had never been enslaved. And each premise seems plausible. When people die their rights to their property are normally passed on to their heirs (Boxill 1972: 113–122; Kershnar 1999: 95–101). The reparations owed to the freed people was their property; it was never in their physical possession of course, but obviously something need not be in your possession to be your property. Neither did the freed people abandon their inheritance. Laws and guns very forcefully kept it from them. Consequently, it should pass, by right of inheritance, to their descendants, the present black  population.[3]