Congressman Stephen Cohen (D-TN) and Jim Clyburn (D-SC) appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews to discuss the congressional resolution to apologize for slavery and segregation. Matthews seems to think that slavery was neatly isolated to those states below the Mason Dixon line and that no one north of Maryland benefited from the brutal practices of Slave Trading and Slave owning. Slave owners were insured, slaves were used to pay debts and to provide cut rate raw material to. In addition, the apology is not just for slavery. It is for segregation and Jim Crow laws as well. All of this was an American issue, not just an issue of the south.

This apology is long overdue as Rep. Clyburn rightfully points out the US Senate has issued apologies to Native Americans, Hawaiians and the Japanese Americans interned during World War II.