130 Years Later: US Apologies and Growth

In “Writings on Empire and Slavery,” Alexis de Tocqueville expressed his commented on slavery, saying, “Slavery before civilized society was interaction between slaves in the same group. Even in ancient Roman society, there were exchange mechanisms for ‘slaves’ to become ‘free men.’”* Yet, after almost 1,000 years of civilized society, the existence of the black slavery system in the American continent allowed human society to systematically force an entire race to become slaves. It was particularly hateful because it blocked the road to slave liberation not only for one person, but also for his or her descendants, who would be lifelong slaves.

The black slavery system was a “throwback” phenomenon, from the time when the light of European civilization shown upon the world. The system reflected the cruel choice made by the U.S. when the New World was faced with double scarcities in labor and development capital. The system covered up the white settlers’ defects in obtaining ownership of the land by stealing from the natives. The whites, who had never been challenged, appeared as the first masters of the continent and started ordering around other ethnicities. So, it came as no surprise that, in the latter half of the 19th century, the United States launched a [campaign of] systematic racial discrimination against the Chinese community who traveled across the ocean for the Gold Rush.

Black slavery is not a U.S. “patent.” At the time, everywhere on the American continent and in the Caribbean Islands, one could hear the roar of black slaves. The well-known economic historian Jeremy Attock revealed a phenomenon in his work, “A New Economic View of American History:” The number of black slaves that were shipped into the U.S. from Africa was far fewer than that of those shipped to other countries and regions in the Americas. Yet, 100 years later, according to Attock’s data, the black population in the U.S. continued to expand, and their average height was taller than those living elsewhere in the Americas, who had negative growth due to abuses.

This shows that there remains a positive energy in the U.S., coinciding with a fall and rise in morals, which enables the country to balance between the role of a moderate good and a Nazi-like evil. The significance of the Civil War lies not only in the fact that the U.S. protected unity, but that it also received a re-baptism for the equality of its people. Attock’s book reveals that after the Civil War, blacks in the Americas migrated to the U.S. at an increasing rate, further elevating the total African American population. Blacks eventually became the backbone of the American civil rights movement. Regardless of black or other ethnic minority groups, their loyalty to the country in the World War II made whites with absolute economic, financial and political privileges rethink the future of the U.S. It was within this framework that Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech received an echo-response from all of society with the “March on Washington” movement.

The attack on Pearl Harbor, disgust for Japan’s stealthy submarines and fear of invasion of California jointly contributed to the experiences of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Japanese-Americans were considered “national enemies” and put into concentration camps. These concentration camps were limited to the spatial concept of concentration camps, rather than the genocide taking place in Nazi concentration camps, but were still a [kind of] reflection of the evils of Nazi Germany. Similarly, the Chinese Exclusion 130 years ago was evil, but less so in comparison to the system of black slavery – a reflection of old evils.

The U.S. principle of action – pragmatist philosophy – determined its nature of making unimaginable efforts, dependent on external circumstances, when not thoroughly correcting its old evils. With the rise of the Japanese economy in the 1970s, the public image of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans has been changed dramatically. When a number of Japanese civil rights leaders demanded U.S. apologies for the historical injustice [carried out] on Japanese-Americans, the U.S. Congress passed several acts. It not only passed the Apology Bill, but also gave compensations specific to each individual. When China and the U.S. formed an anti-fascist alliance early in World War II, the U.S. repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which had existed for 60 years. This type of apology by the U.S. does not come from a strong internal moral self-examination, but rather reflects the balance of domestic and foreign interests – a realistic exchange of interests. There is no doubt that the realism of the exchange of interests helps America remain balanced between saint-like America and empire-like America, but it also assists the growth of U.S. prosperity.

The U.S. apology (for the Chinese Exclusion Act) whether or not it has suffered the dark psychological impact of pragmatism, is based on one premise: the recognition of the historical errors – wrong is wrong. The apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act, unlike other historical apology cases, involved compensation for the Chinese, but it was also a national apology case – after 130 years – unanimously approved by the Senate and House of Representatives. It was enough to show an apology of good faith.

The author is an Associate Professor of Political Science of the Southwest University, China

*Editor’s Note: This quote, accurately translated, could not be found in the English translation of the cited text; however, the sentiment expressed by the quote seems to correspond to a passage in de Tocqueville’s seminal work “Democracy in America:” “The slave, amongst the ancients, belonged to the same race as his master, and he was often the superior of the two in education and instruction. Freedom was the only distinction between them; and when freedom was conferred they were easily confounded together.”