Chapter 2 eternal question

Brother Lu: Hello! It was a pleasure to hear from you so soon.You said you were interested in this topic.You also said that in your impression, the United States is a country with serious racial problems, and you also know that the United States is a multi-ethnic immigrant country.However, I was only impressed by the history of slavery in the United States, and I have not been exposed to many recent introductions about racial issues in the United States.So there is indeed a limited understanding of the complexity and potential intensity of this issue.Even an understanding of slavery and the process by which these problems were addressed can be smacked of "simplistic".Therefore, I hope to receive the following letter as soon as possible.Then I will continue to write down.

The racial issue in the United States today is indeed "dazzling".Recently, when a Korean sociologist in the United States discussed the Los Angeles riots in an article, he said that it is necessary to recognize that "the United States has changed from a black-and-white society to a multi-racial society. Moved to Sanfeng in the center of the stage. One of the founding heroes of the Li Dynasty. He believed that "the one who condenses Qi is form, quality, god, and becomes the protagonist. "This situation can actually be seen from the appearance, because standing on the land of the United States and looking out, the intuitive feeling is that the races are colorful.

However, the reason why the racial issue in the United States is so sensitive is unforgettable.It is indeed related to the historical origin you mentioned.Because in the history of the United States, racial issues were once associated with slavery.This makes the racial issue that is not easy to deal with anywhere, and adds a historical grudge here. You must be familiar with the Civil War that ended slavery in the United States, but in fact, the Civil War was not the only move to solve slavery.Efforts against slavery have been almost constant with the institution, and those efforts began even before the founding of the United States.However, due to historical limitations, this can only be a gradual process.In fact, this is also a process for human beings to gradually understand themselves and gradually clean themselves up.Today, when we re-examine such a process with a historical perspective, we still feel very rewarding.

Besides, even the Civil War, which you are already familiar with, actually has stories other than textbooks that will surprise you.So, even though you're already familiar with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and all that stuff from the days of American slavery, I have to start this topic from the beginning. You also know that when Columbus discovered America, he reached the southern part of America.The development of the Americas also started from South America.In the beginning, it didn't have much to do with the British ancestors of the Americans.The world at that time belonged to the "Sea Overlord".Therefore, Spain and Portugal, with a large number of navigators and pirates, became the masters of South America, and the most important ones were the Spaniards. The "Sea Kings" are also familiar with Africa.Therefore, when their new American colonies were seriously short of labor, they naturally thought of Africa, where there were strong blacks.

That was more than four hundred years ago.Unfortunately, slavery is indeed an important part of the development of human civilization.This is true whether it is the European civilization of the whites or the African civilization of the blacks.Therefore, today it seems obvious that it should be a business of exporting labor services, but four hundred years ago it became a business of slave trading.Of course, there are some tribal blacks captured by white slave traders, but this cannot be the most economical and convenient source.Therefore, based on the extremely uneven development of African society at that time and the existence of slavery, some blacks also became an important part of this transaction. They obtained "sources" and sold them, becoming sellers.

In the United States today, if you want to buy several trucks of gravel for paving, you are not looking for a gravel yard, you should be looking for a transportation company.The same is true of the slave trade four hundred years ago.At that time, this business was operated by the nautical industry, and the slave traders were all nautical adventurers.Since this is a very lucrative business, captains from various European countries have joined the ranks.But the strongest are still Spain and Portugal.As a result, the word "Negro" that Americans have used for a long time, actually does not come from English but from Spanish and Portuguese.

Spain has continued to advance and develop from South America to North America for more than a hundred years. This development is also accompanied by an increase in the number of blacks purchased because of the shortage of labor.At that time, blacks were so common in South America that we can even see some islands and countries in South America today where blacks are the majority.They are not local aborigines, their ancestors were also swept here in the wave of black slave trade. Therefore, when the pioneers recognized by Americans, the first group of British Puritans, drifted at sea for 65 days on the famous "Mayflower", and finally arrived at the east coast of the North American continent, that is, New England, When they knelt down to pray facing a vast wasteland, was it really what they saw, a huge uncultivated virgin land?This statement is also right and wrong.

Because in any case, when they arrived, compared to the vast land of the entire North American continent, it can be said that it was indeed sparsely populated.Within their range of activities, even far beyond their radius of activity, there are still vast and vast places where people are rare or even untouched. But from another point of view, including the whole of South America and part of North America, when they arrived, there were already more than 200 Spanish towns, nearly 200,000 Spaniards and 5 million local Indians.There are also a considerable number of blacks bought from Africa.In this sense, the "New World" at that time already had a certain social structure and lifestyle dominated by the Spaniards.This way of life also includes the reality of the slave market.

However, I have never figured out that even Canada, which is so cold, has been favored by the French in 1604 and built settlements. Why is the northern part of the east coast of America, which later became the cradle of the United States, a large area of ​​good scenery? The beautiful area was desolate and neglected at that time.Therefore, the black slave trade in South America has been going on for nearly a hundred years, but no black person has been brought to this place with the Spaniards. However, it really seems to be arranged by fate, just one year before the "Mayflower" on which these Puritan pioneers arrived on the east coast of North America, in August 1619, five miles south of the place where they landed. A hundred miles away on the same coast, the first twenty Negroes had preceded them.It was a Dutch ship that brought these Negroes.No one knows to this day whether they were slaves or domestic servants in semi-slavery.

In addition to a boat full of European goods, the Dutch captain who also brought the twenty blacks along with him set an embarrassing historical record.Although there was no means of transportation and communication, the pioneer immigrants on the "Mayflower" knew nothing about it.However, the existence of these twenty black people and the way they exist, symbolically, at the same time as the "Mayflower" was approaching North America, slavery and racial issues had already begun in North America.All this really happened in what is known today as the United States, although it would be another hundred and fifty years before there would be a country called the United States in the world.

Since the development of this land was carried out in an open immigration style, the loneliness and desolation faced by the first group of British immigrants in New England were quickly understood by batches of successors who heard the news. break in.North America, after the Spaniards developed South America for many years, finally became a new immigration hotspot, and new European immigrants, mainly British, flocked here.Britain also began to regard it as its own colony.But at this time, among the slave traders, there must be such good news: On the east coast of North America, a huge new market has appeared. Do you remember?When we were studying the history of human development, we have all encountered such a problem, that is, if it is assumed that "man" was indeed "changed" by anthropoids, rather than "created" by God, then when did they start? Different from other animals, can you call yourself a "human" instead of an animal? We have all come to the conclusion from textbooks that labor created man, the dividing line between man and other animals, and it was they who began to make tools.This conclusion has given me peace of mind for decades.Until one day, I finally saw a gorilla with his own eyes. In order to obtain food, he made tools for himself seriously, and obtained food with the homemade tools as he wished.After eating, people still think it is just a gorilla, not a "human", which is really disappointing to me. Later, I heard that "artistic creation" is a watershed for the above-mentioned problems.I'm skeptical.This means that when an ape finally picks up a charred branch and draws a branch on the rock, he has completed a crucial step towards "human".However, some people in the United States have raised an elephant, and they just like to draw pictures. Watching it put down the oil paintbrush with its nose, and even sign it with a hard pen, "to prevent counterfeiting", I really can't laugh or cry.Looking at the color feeling of the painting, it must be stronger than some "people". In the end, I decided to put the question aside.At this time, I don't know where I saw such a way of speaking.I don't take it as the truth or the answer, but I do like this saying: when the moon is shining in the sky and everything is silent, a sitting orangutan's mind suddenly pops up such a puzzling question Question "What is the difference between me and other animals?" At this time, he is a "human". Please excuse my digression.What I want to say is that human beings as a whole have such a characteristic.That is, first, he is constantly thinking; second, one of the most basic issues he thinks about is always related to human nature.As a whole human being, he has to conduct moral introspection and conscience torture on this issue all the time.This is the basic basis for human beings to have confidence in the word "progress". You have noticed that we have come back a bit, right? Therefore, when we go back to the North American slave trade more than 300 years ago, and even back to the South American slave trade 400 years ago.We found that African tribal leaders who participated in the black slave trade and white slave traders from Europe may have different moral responsibilities for the same behavior.Why do you say this way?Because their development levels at that time were fundamentally different.This level of difference means that as a human group, they have different depths of thinking and understanding of humanity and morality, that is, their degrees of evolution are fundamentally different. Just like today, we may still find a "headhunter" deep in a tropical jungle.Their tribe poachs the head of a foreign race every year, so as to ensure the safety and auspiciousness of the whole tribe.At this time, we say that this kind of hunting is a primitive religion.Suppose an explorer comes along at this time, he lives in this tribe for a while and gets enlightened, he also cuts off someone's head out of personal grudges.Of course he would not receive any censure in the tribe, but his behavior could hardly be called "primitive religion" rather than "murder".Here you will see that the same behavior that occurs at the same time may have different moral responsibilities. There are certain historical reasons for the initial emergence of the slave issue in North America.You will see that not only is the issue of race in America today not simple, but even the issue of slavery back then was also very complicated. The first is that there have been a large number of slave traders in South America who have been "operating" for a century or so.For them, the source of goods and the way of operation are already familiar, but with the influx of immigrants from North America, they just change the delivery location.Therefore, from the very beginning, there were a large number of "slave sources" that were automatically delivered to the door. At the same time, slavery was indeed a part of the development of European civilization, and there were still some remnants of slavery at that time. For example, although the slaves in North America were mainly blacks, a considerable number of whites were also enslaved in the early stages of development. Also become a slave.This is because the immigrants inherited the tradition of paying debts with labor labor that was prevalent in Europe at that time. At that time, a large number of white people who came to North America were in a state of abject poverty, and they could not even afford a boat ticket to their hometown of hope.Therefore, there are generally those who pledge themselves.Whoever pays for the ticket owns the labor within a few years.There are even some people who were directly selected from the debt prisons in the UK.In other words, enslaved labor was not very unfamiliar to European immigrants at that time. Despite this, however, the British mainland was already in turmoil at that time, and the idea of ​​equality and freedom was no longer in its infancy.So I think that when these British people first arrived in the American continent, they must have been taken aback by the "exotic scenery" of the "slave market".That is to say, for the way that has prevailed in South America: such a naked slave trade that treats people like livestock, if they want to accept or even participate in such a behavior, there will still be a hesitant moral threshold in front of them . However, American immigration at that time was very weakly controlled and extremely chaotic.Among these people, there are all kinds of backgrounds and situations.As you can imagine, the vast majority of them, at the level of overall human development more than three hundred years ago, in a region where slavery has become a fact, obviously would not have faced the unfamiliar wild land and harsh living conditions , but insisted on moral grounds, categorically rejecting the use of labor in slavery. So, what kind of predicament did these new immigrants face at that time? The situation of the immigrant pioneers on board the famous "Mayflower" is a very typical example.A total of one hundred and two of them arrived in North America in mid-November.Unfortunately, the New England where they landed is the northern part of today's American territory.By then the severe cold had begun.In front of them is the wilderness with a blizzard blowing, while the Pacific Ocean behind them is like a sharp knife, cutting off the link between them and civilization.What's more, they come from a country that has already developed a high degree of civilization, and they have long lost the ability of their ancestors to survive in nature.The ending can be imagined, just one winter's cold wind took away fifty-eight lives, and after half a year, only forty-four of them remained. Even the forty-four people left behind can be called a miracle.We visited the places where the Mayflower docked in winter.According to local friends, this is already a "warm winter" that has not happened in decades.However, when we stood on the shore, facing the biting cold wind blowing from the Atlantic Ocean, we lost almost all our pleasure and patience in a blink of an eye.Even though he was wrapped in a thick modern down jacket, he couldn't wait to rush to a Chinese restaurant called "Ming Dynasty".After drinking a whole pot of hot tea in the heater, I suddenly realized what we were running away from.What we escaped was the hunger and cold that this ship of immigrants faced after watching the "Mayflower" sail away.But they have no escape.Even if they were about to collide face-to-face with the god of death, they still had no way to escape. Subsequent emigrants were not much better off.The development of the British colonies started from the north, where most immigrants settled down, and the winters were quite cold.In addition to being more and more powerful, latecomers still have to solve all problems by themselves.Their houses are still trees in the forest.Who was food for whom, between them and the running beast, was still an open question.The farmland in their fantasy is still a virgin land full of shrubs and thorns.Their seeds and tools are still in merchant ships adrift at sea.But winter refused to postpone the pace and insisted on arriving as scheduled.They have wives and children, and people around them are suffering from epidemic diseases. There is no cure or medicine, and people report to God every now and then.They wanted to at least give their children a place to live before winter, but they just didn't have enough manpower, including women and children to work together, and it was even less enough when they got sick. In this situation in the initial stages of development, the original backgrounds of immigrants of all kinds were ruthlessly erased.Some people brought money, but their money could not buy the humblest houses that could accommodate them. What they could buy was the most scarce and therefore most precious slave labor at that time.Because everything has to be created with hands and physical strength. Therefore, more than 300 years ago, what the North American immigrants considered was far from the luxuries such as "development" and "making a fortune" imagined by today's people.If any of them had ever thought this way before boarding the ship in England, such an idea would be blown away by the cold reality as soon as they got off the ship.They desperately do not know how to survive in a wilderness.At this time, a shipload of black laborers was brought in, saying that they didn't even need cash, and that they could exchange "things" with local timber.It is conceivable that most of them crossed the first moral threshold before them without much hesitation. Thus began slave labor in North America. With the establishment and development of the thirteen British colonies here, the land is developing rapidly.Although the situation in this New World is still backward compared with Europe, an occasional European traveler will still dismiss it and describe it as a backcountry when he returns home.However, the various colonies here have established a governor's government.The dangerous environment that the early pioneers encountered has also been greatly changed.To put it another way, some of the historical excuses that new immigrants used to use slave labor when they crossed the moral threshold no longer exist. But, as you already know, slavery in North America not only did not abate, but flourished.The influx of slaves into these British colonies was overwhelming.Slavery soon became the most glaring reality in North America.The reason is actually very simple. Because the slave trade and slave labor both produce the most irresistible temptation of human beings, which is profit.However, the realities of slavery shaped by the early experiences of the land are clearly a "primordial push" that cannot be ignored.This is one of the reasons why black slaves are rampant in the British colonies of North America, but the British mainland has never been involved.There is no excuse for such historical conditions in Britain, so even those who are also driven by interests and want to hold slaves are blocked at this end of the moral threshold, and it is difficult to step out in public. The slave trade in North America developed so rapidly, and there is another special situation, that is, not only some merchants and civilians were attracted by this "interest", it also attracted a dynasty.The dynasty mobilized the power of a great power to dump slaves into this newly developed land. As early as 1662, just 40 years after the "Mayflower" arrived in North America, Charles II of the British Dynasty chartered the "Royal African Trading Company" to sell slaves to the West Indies and North America in a planned way.By 1713, the British Dynasty had even reached an important agreement with Spain on the slave trade. The British Royal African Company monopolized the import of slaves from the entire Americas, including South America, and the royal families of the two countries each shared a quarter of the profits.In the following two decades, according to records, Britain imported at least 15,000 slaves to the Americas every year, about a quarter of which entered the Spanish colonies in South America, and most of them entered the British colonies in North America. You must have seen that the British emperor's business in North America is particularly easy to do.Because in North America, he has the final say.The land is his colony, and the manager is the governor he sent out, of course to assist in sales.In fact, some colonies expressed concern and resistance to the surging tide of black slaves for various reasons, such as the most common security reason.However, neither could resist the consistent slave sales policy of the British dynasty and the colonial governors. In this way, a strong hand pushed slavery in North America.It was the British dynasty, the owner of this land at the time, who began to import a large number of black slaves here in an organized manner.The income from slave trade once became the "national interest" deliberately pursued by a dynasty.As a result, the slave trade was no longer a sea adventure of scattered captains, but a royal business monopolized by the British dynasty.In other words, in modern terms, the powerful British dynasty became the largest "organized criminal group" in the slave trade.The slave trade in North America reached a climax with the strong support of the British Dynasty. So, you may ask, what hope is there for this land?It is true that when a huge interest suddenly appears, a dynasty will be attracted, and most ordinary people will also be attracted.When we look back at North America in history, what we see is a whirlpool formed by huge interests. We went to New York a few years ago and walked around the campus of the famous Columbia University.There is a sculpture "The Thinker" by Rodin on the campus, which is reproduced from the original model.I remember that we only had the opportunity to see the photos of this sculpture in the past. Although we can’t see it clearly, we are still amazed at Rodin’s idea: at the gate of hell, “man” sits down to “think”. Now, when I finally had the opportunity to stand in front of this sculpture, I suddenly couldn't help but think that "he" was just sitting there quietly, why do we have a feeling of being shocked, and "he" is standing there again? What are you thinking? I am sure that what he was thinking about was still the eternal "primitive question" that he thought of for the first time when he stood between "ape" and "man".No matter when a human being walks, there will always be a new moral threshold in front of him. Before this threshold, he has to sit down and think.From the moment he became a "man" until he came to the gate of the flaming hell.This question is eternal and transcends all.The reason is surprisingly simple: he is a "human", of course he wants to know what is "human nature" instead of "beast nature".What should I do to call myself a "human" instead of a "beast". There are always some people who will not easily cross the moral threshold, they will sit down and think, this is the hope of mankind, and also the hope of this land of North America. As the spiritually dominated north of North America, we can always see clear clues of such a "person" thinking about the issue of slavery.That is, when confronted with such an unusual problem as black slavery, there are some people here who instinctively start thinking in terms of humanity.raise doubts.When the tide of interests hits, they may only be a very small minority, but as long as they stand on the side that conforms to human nature, their persistence will miraculously gradually show their strength.It is very interesting to explore such a historically logical process. The core of the development of this land has always been in the north, which is why Americans have always regarded the Pilgrims on the "Mayflower" as their spiritual pioneers.Because of this, I used to mistakenly believe that they were the first ship of English immigrants to reach North America. I later learned that, in fact, thirteen years before the "Mayflower" arrived in New England, in 1607, Virginia had been established. The first British town.So, why do Americans in the future have to identify the immigrants on the "Mayflower" as their spiritual ancestors? The composition of immigrants in the American colonies was indeed very different. Of course, North America also has a large number of "economic immigrants" driven by poverty, but the proportion of "political immigrants" who come here is unusually high.They left their homeland in the midst of many religious persecutions and political turmoil in Britain and Europe, looking for a free land.For many of them, the situation in the UK is far better than when they came here as refugees. For these people, finding a new continent is more of a spiritual need.They need a "land promised by God" where they can have their right to worship freely.Among them, the ship of immigrants on the "Mayflower" is very typical, and it is also the earliest batch of these "political immigrants". You already know that in the first winter they came here, the harsh natural conditions took the lives of more than half of the "Mayflower" immigrants.However, when the "Mayflower" came here again in the spring of the following year, the captain was surprised to find that the remaining forty-four malnourished survivors who were still struggling on the verge of death had none of them. A man is willing to go back to civilized England with the ship, but insists on remaining in this really poor wilderness. It is such people who tend to become, quite naturally, the religious and spiritual nuclei everywhere.This tradition has made the religious atmosphere in the United States very strong so far.We chatted with the two Australian architects who came last year. They said that Australia, which is also a newly developed British colony, does not have such a strong religious tradition and atmosphere.After listening to all kinds of religious broadcasting stations here, they felt very novel. The north is where a large number of such "political immigrants" gather.They are relatively more educated, and the reasons for their exile are often political reasons, mainly "religious persecution", so they are more accustomed to thinking rationally in the face of secular temptations.Even before they had completely solved the problem of food and clothing, they couldn't wait to establish Harvard University, and called the place where Harvard University was established "Cambridge".Of course, Harvard at that time could only be a few shacks, but they felt that they could survive only with the support of a spiritual pillar like Harvard University.It's hard to believe that when they put up the sign of Harvard University with high hopes, it was only sixteen years after the "Mayflower" arrived here.There are still more than a hundred years before the founding of the United States.Therefore, there has always been a saying that "there is Harvard first, and then there is the United States". Therefore, to trace the historical footprint of this land, the clues in the north are relatively clear.The entire rise, prosperity and decline of slavery in North America can be seen in this New England region with Harvard University, as well as most of the northern regions, to see a relatively clear logical process. Let me start with the example of Massachusetts in New England.Opposition to the system logically coincided with the arrival of slaves in the region. At that time, religion played a big role in the beginning.Religious thinking should be non-utilitarian thinking.After they distanced themselves from the secular world, they explored the profound philosophical issues of man and god.Thus, any pretext for worldly interests which might be found must be shut out at the gates of religion.Due to the living environment in North America, the thinking content of various religions also included issues such as slavery and how different races get along very early.Of course, different religions reach different conclusions on these issues. Although, the early North American Puritans in New England were once very narrow and stubborn about religious orthodoxy.They once believed that the religion of the Indians was the religion of the devil, and they also regarded the Quakers as heretical and dissidents, and drove them out.However, on the issue of slaves, based on their understanding of the Bible, they drew their own unequivocal conclusions on the moral level. Three hundred years ago, they understood in this way that the use of slaves is only in line with the Bible under the following circumstances, and it can pass their moral doubts.That is, the person who is enslaved must be a prisoner of war, as well as a person who agrees to sell himself (such as the debt slave we mentioned earlier).In addition, they cannot accept such practices as "slave buying and selling" and "slave keeping". Here, we find a strange phenomenon, that is, it is inferred that the North American Puritans of that era did not object to white slaves, which were not uncommon at that time, because these white slaves agreed to pay off their debts with freedom and labor services, that is, they agreed to sell my own.However, they opposed the sale and use of black slaves, because all black slaves were forced and involuntary. So, on the one hand, you can see that these Puritans’ understanding of the slavery issue has limitations left over from European slave culture; on the other hand, you can see that their way of thinking is very logical.As one of the most important schools of religious thought in North America at that time, when they were thinking about a major topic, they paid attention to logical reasoning at the moral level, but racial affiliation did not become a basis for their judgment.In this sense, their thinking is very "vanguard" in the current buzzword. Three hundred years ago, the newly developed North America was still chaotic and its binding power was weak.Due to the large demand for labor, the slave market in North America was developing as the times require.The Puritans tried to strictly resist the wave of the slave trade based on their moral appeal.The result was a story that took place in Massachusetts, New England at the time. In Massachusetts at the time, as elsewhere, many immigrants were deeply attracted by the benefits of the slave trade.Some of them did not even want to passively wait for slaves to be brought to them. It happened in 1640, twenty years after the arrival of the Mayflower on the North American continent.A captain named Smith drove a cargo ship from Massachusetts to Africa to deliver goods.After unloading the goods, he felt that he had a new idea. Although transporting "live goods" is not as convenient as transporting ordinary goods, if it happens, it will open up a new "road to wealth" for himself. ?So, why not take two niggers back and try the business?Those enviable slave traders who have made a fortune are not unmatched.He looked at the gun in his hand again, maybe he felt that he was just experimenting, not a large-scale demand, and he didn't have to go to the local slave market to spend money to buy it, so he could try his luck. As a result, Captain Smith actually led the crew to select a black village as the target of the raid near the place where his ship stopped.This is probably a small tribal village, because they succeeded in a small trial and captured several unsuspecting black families in one fell swoop, and then put them on board and brought them back to Massachusetts where he lived.All the way back, Captain Smith must be dreaming of his "gold rush dream".According to the status quo of the slave trade in North America at that time, he had every reason to make this dream come true.But who would have expected that this time, he just pressed the wrong treasure. At that time, Massachusetts was still in its early days of pioneering, but it had already begun to have some administrative management.The local people are trying to form a management based on certain religious and moral principles.It was the world of the Puritans at that time.Their principles are God's principles conveyed by the Bible as they understand them.You already know that regarding the issue of slavery, they believe that God's principle is that except for "prisoners of war", they must "voluntarily sell themselves" before they can become slaves.Although they claim that this is the will of the Bible, it clearly reflects their depth of understanding of humanity and humanity in that historical period. Therefore, in the eyes of some local Puritans who strictly abide by the precepts, Captain Smith obviously violated the principles of God.At a time when slavery was gaining ground in North America, these Massachusetts Puritans decided to cling stubbornly to the "moral innocence" of their place.They have nothing to do with the slave traders from other places, but they will never allow the souls of the local residents to be hooked by the devil, and they are not going to let this greedy Captain Smith open a gap.Thus, the captain thus became a special case in the history of the North American slave trade.He was arrested immediately upon his return to Massachusetts.And those blacks who were robbed by him also encountered "unprecedented" good luck. The Massachusetts judiciary, which was still in its infancy at the time, immediately ordered them to be sent back to their hometowns in Africa with local public funds. Massachusetts in 1641 therefore had a law against the kidnapping of black slaves from Africa: "Anyone who kidnaps a human being shall be sentenced to death without pardon." Although they were ultimately not able to really stem the wave of slavery that followed in later years, slavery became common in Massachusetts, as in other colonies, after a few decades.Its port city, Boston, also gradually developed due to the transfer of a large number of black slaves from Africa. But the reason why I am telling you is this very rare instance of the North American slave trade.Because although few people at the time thought that such a behavior of praying for a car was meaningful.但是，当你看到，一百多年以后，摧毁奴隶制的烈焰就是起于这最初的一点一点火星，你就会感受到思想的力量，这也就是历史的迷人之处。 清教徒们始终没有放弃这样一个出于宗教理念的道德诉求。也在一百多年来逐步引起越来越多人的思考。这种气氛最终导致了在独立战争前后，北方对于奴隶问题的彻底反省。 在马萨诸塞，这场思想清理，在美国独立战争之前就已经开始。马萨诸塞也是最早在奴隶问题上开始挑战立法的几个北方英属殖民地之一。 在独立战争开始前，一个抵制奴隶进口的运动已经在发展起来。1767年，即独立战争的八年之前，他们就在议会提出了“有关禁止本地区进口奴隶的法案”，但是，这个时候议会的上下两院本身还不能达成共识，因此法案无法通过。四年以后，他们再一次努力，终于在议会两院有了一致的意见，通过了一个类似的法案。但是，却遭到当时英皇委派的殖民地总督的否决，法案被封杀了。 独立战争逐步迫近。挑战立法所引起的有关讨论，在马萨诸塞也越来越深入人心。他们不断地重复努力，希望使当时作为执法权威的总督，能够接受一个禁止进口奴隶的法案，但是始终没有成功。1774年，就是在独立战争打响的前一年，议会甚至两度通过这样的法案，最终，依然没能通过英皇的总督这一关。但是，你已经可以清楚地看到马萨诸塞这个地方对于奴隶问题的基本态度了。 这种趋势形成的气氛，即使从当地的黑奴身上，也可以看出一些端倪。就在马萨诸塞，曾经发生了这样一件在当时影响并不大的事情。 也同是在独立战争爆发前一年的1774年，北方暖春的五月，马萨诸塞英总督的办公桌上，出现了一份申诉书。在托玛斯.盖奇漫长的总督生涯中，他接受过不少申诉，可是这一份却大大地出乎他的意料之外。因为这是一份代表着一群黑奴向英国皇家总督提出的申诉书。他惊奇地发现，在这份申诉书中，这些黑人从人性的原则，基督教的道义出发，甚至从当时的法律中寻找依据，不仅动之以情而且逻辑清楚地推理，得出无可抗辩的要求：他们要求恢复他们和孩子被剥夺的“生而自由”的天赋权利。 当然，在当时的情况下，英总督并没有批准这样的申诉。那些交上申诉书之后，苦苦等待，却没有能等出一个结果的黑奴们，也没有在历史上留下他们的名字。可是，这就是历史的意义：今天，人类根据永恒的人道与非人道泾渭分明的准则，给曾经显赫的留下了姓名的英总督，和卑微的没有留下姓名的黑奴们，下了孰是孰非的判定。美国成立以后，这份黑奴的申诉书逐渐成为孩子们必受的教育，感动了一代又一代的美国人。 这是殖民时期非常罕见的一次黑奴的合法抗争。为什么是罕见的呢？ 因为在当时，黑人作为个人和小的群体，有可能出现偶而的反抗，但是作为整体，不论其人数如何迅速增长，他们在北美注定会在非常长的一个历史阶段里，是几乎没有自己声音的一个极弱势群体。这不仅因为他们被胁迫，同时也因为，黑人还处于他们偶然进入的这个陌生文化系统的蒙昧状态。 黑人甚至失去了自己的语言。这不仅是说他们来到新大陆，必须学习主人的语言，还因为当时的非洲不同部落的语言非常复杂。直到本世纪的六十年代，在美国南方的一个地方，仍有相当多的黑人讲一种起源于二十几种西非语言的叫“古拉赫”的语言。你可以因此想象，两三百年前的黑人语言状况是多么混乱和无奈。黑奴相互之间都常常无法交谈，他们只能通过逐步学一些英语，来进行黑人本身之间的简单交流。 他们更无法发展自己的文化，只是沦为一种陌生文化的工具。他们对于自由的渴望一开始都只是一种生命的本能。他们中的绝大多数还根本理不出一个头绪，更不要说提出一个共同目标。大多数黑人还搞不清楚自己所处的这个社会是怎么回事。甚至在他们许多人的原来文化中，奴隶状态也是生活的一部分，非洲的部落战争也经常使战俘成为奴隶。种种原因使得黑人在相当长的时期里，逃亡和反抗都只是个别现象，而逆来顺受却被迫成为主流。 因此，这份申诉书出现在马萨诸塞并不是偶然的。你可以想象，如果没有适当的土壤，根本不可能在两百多年前的黑奴中间，生长出这样一棵树苗，没有合适的气候，它也不可能如此健康，茁壮，并且理直气壮地展现自己虽然微薄，却是由苦难积累起来的力量。因为，你可以说，追求自由，这是每个人都与生俱来的本能，然而，这些黑人第一次清晰表达出来的天赋人权的理论，基督教的教义，法制的概念，却不是他们从自己的家乡带来的。 从这份申诉书中，你可以看到黑人为争取自由迈出的第一步，你也同时可以看到马萨诸塞的早期清教徒们的身影。他们逮捕一个斯密斯船长，送回了几家黑人，并没有阻挡住奴隶交易的浪潮。但是他们持续一百多年的努力，有了今天这样的结果：黑人的逐步觉醒和更多白人的反省。 1775年，独立战争终于打响了，新成立的马萨诸塞“革命政府”遇到的第一个案子，就是在海上抓到了待售的黑人。一项提案被送到了立法机构，立法机构不仅立即同意了这项将黑人们立即释放的提案，而且附带了这样一个声明：“这种对人进行出售和奴役的行为，直接践踏了造物主赋予全人类的自然权利。我们以及各州都誓言要为自由而战斗到底，而这种行为与这样的誓言是完全背道而驰的。” 这个声明显然超出了以往通过的法案的诉求，它要求的已经不止是停止奴隶交易，它直接提出了解放奴隶。并且指出了黑人的自由和白人们正在从英国人那里寻求的自由，同属一个人类理想，是不可割裂的。虽然这个声明当时并没有完全通过，通过的只是禁止奴隶交易和虐待奴隶的部分，然而，所有的马萨诸塞人一定听到，奴隶制的丧钟已经开始敲响。 仅仅是八年独立战争的第二年，马萨诸塞就有了着手解决奴隶问题的专门委员会。这个委员会在战争之中就向议会递交了废奴的议案。 英国签字同意美国独立，是在1783年。在此三年之前的1780年，也就是那些黑人向英总督送出申诉书的仅仅六年之后，哈佛大学所在的马萨诸塞，在地方宪法中就有了这样的明确条款“所有的人生而自由平等，并具有明确的，与生俱来的，基本的和不可剥夺的权利；依据这些权利他们得以保护自己的生命和和自由”。 马萨诸塞终于在进行独立战争的同时，就完成了对奴隶制清算。 同属北方的宾夕法尼亚，是教友派的大本营。你一定记得前面提到过的，新英格兰的早期清教徒曾经出于宗教偏见，强烈排斥过教友派。所以，他们之间不仅属于不同的殖民地，相互之间没有什么联系，而且在宗教观点上还有相当大的分歧。然而，在查看宾夕法尼亚的资料时，我奇怪地发现，在奴隶问题上他们所走过的历史路径，与马萨诸塞的情况却极为相似。 仔细想想，这两个地方的移民在本质上有一个共同点。他们都对于精神追求有一种近乎天真的执着。早期新英格兰的清教徒，已经以物质生活的清贫和对精神生活的孜孜以求闻名，而教友派更是把对于精神的追求，发展到了殉教的极致。这种状态的缺点是非常明显的，就是他们很容易走向偏执，不肯妥协。这两个教派在早期都踏入过这样的误区。但是他们共同的优点，就是不轻易在世俗利益面前放弃道义，所谓的“见利忘义”。 教友派来到北美，显然也是为了寻求一片宗教自由的乐土。正因为早期饱受清教徒的排斥，他们在新大陆一度处于类似流浪的状态，没有一个集中的基地。于是他们的一个宗教领袖威廉.佩恩，就在1681年向英皇查尔斯二世要下了宾夕法尼亚这块殖民地。他之所以能成功的原因之一，居然是皇上曾经欠过他们家族的钱！当时的宾夕法尼亚当然也是一片荒原，但是教友派的教徒们已经心满意足，他们好歹有了一个新的家园。 在教友派所理解的圣经精神中，最重要的一部分，就是平等和自由的精神。这使得教友派成为北美最早提出各种族平等相处理想的教派之一。以后我会再向你介绍，这一点认识在北美不仅是实属可贵，在当时也是非常不容易。于是，教友派的一些牧师从很早开始，就向教徒灌输解除奴隶制的思想。 在宾夕法尼亚最早加入谴责奴隶制行列的，还有一批德国移民，他们属于教友派叫做公谊会的一个分支。他们在宾夕法尼亚这个新的家园建立了德国镇，保留他们自己的宗教和生活习惯。 1688年，也就是在威廉.佩恩在宾夕法尼亚建立这个教友派新家园只有七年的时候，在德国镇的公谊会每周宗教聚会中，他们已经留下了这样一份古英语和古德语混杂在一起的，有关奴隶问题的讨论记录。 在讨论中他们明确反对蓄奴，所用的思想和语言都极为朴素。他们写道，“我们反对这种针对人的肮脏交易，理由如下：……他们是黑人，但是我们不能想象，只是因为这个原因，我们就能有更大的权利令他们为奴，就像我们对其他白人，也没有这种特权。俗话说，己所不欲，勿施于人。我们对不同辈份，不同血统和不同肤色的人，都应该一视同仁。” 你看到，。这里不仅有他们对于奴隶问题的态度，也有他们对于种族问题的立场。 作为北美思想主导的北方出现的这些早期质疑，形式和深度都并不相同。但是，在人性的普遍原则下，拂去外表，我们发现它们有着一个共同的坚实内核，那就是，新移民纵有万般理由，他们难道就因此真的具有剥夺他人自由的权利吗？这发生在三百多年前的北美开拓初期，他们第一次试图离开自己的困境，离开自己相对优越的地位，站在那些他们还完全无法理解的黑人的立场上，质问这个人类行为的合理性。 当然，由英王朝所推动的北美贩奴浪潮，也随之冲击到了这里的平民和教徒。不论是宾夕法尼亚的居民，还是教友会的教徒，都有参与奴隶交易和蓄奴行为的。一时间，这些看上去近乎“迂腐”的“道德说教”，似乎根本无法与奴隶劳动带来的巨大“利益”抗衡。然而，也许正是他们的宗教热情，使他们没有放弃较量。1696年，公谊会就提出了反对进口奴隶的提议。此后的二十五年里，他们几乎没有停止过这样的呼吁，而且呼声越来越高。 宾夕法尼亚的教友派，长期以来在议会里占有重要地位。所以，宾夕法尼亚也是北美的英属殖民地中，最早在议会里通过一系列法案，对进口奴隶进行禁止性课税的。 1712年，就已经有人提出彻底禁奴，当时的议会还不可能接受。可是他们同意先走出禁奴的第一步，于是，就在这一年通过了第一个对进口奴隶的禁止性课税法案。 当时在北美，有不少殖民地都对拥有奴隶或是进口奴隶收税，可是目的却大不相同。有些地方课“奴隶税”的目的只是为了增加政府的财政收入。北卡罗莱纳以税收限制奴隶进口的数量，则是因为担心黑奴过多而无法控制。宾夕法尼亚却是唯一以明确的反奴隶制这样的道德目标，而制定这个税收法案的。 然而，他们遇到了马萨诸塞的议会遇到过的同样问题。1712年的这个立法立即被英王朝下令不准执行。接下来就是反对奴隶制的宾夕法尼亚议会，在奴隶交易问题上一系列的挑战立法和一再被英王朝否决，这样的戏剧在此后的几十年里，重复上演。 1754年，教友派又迈出重大的一步。他们在挑战立法的同时，开始利用教会的约束力，禁止教徒购买奴隶。1758年的一次教友派宗教年会上，他们宣布禁止教徒参与和奴隶交易有关的任何行为。任何人只要加入教友派，就必须遵守这个禁令。任何违反者，地方教会都必须宣布此人脱离教会。 在这样的两头夹击下，在独立战争之前，宾夕法尼亚的奴隶交易几乎已经停止了。教会的禁令又使得这里的奴隶人数锐减。到独立战争打响时，这里只剩下了一万名左右的奴隶。 独立战争所提出的自由精神，也大大加速了宾夕法尼亚对于奴隶问题的清理。1780年，在独立战争结束的三年之前，宾夕法尼亚的议会终于通过立法，彻底禁奴。 在翻阅北美殖民地时期有关奴隶问题的文件时，我一开始也觉得很奇怪，因为在北方，不少殖民地的早期文件，对进口奴隶甚至对蓄奴，一开始就有了道德谴责和禁止条文，有的甚至措辞严厉。 可是以后的几十年，基本上就只有大量对奴隶交易课税的决议了。早期的对奴隶制的道德诉求几乎在所有殖民地的立法提案中销声匿迹。在了解了英王朝对于奴隶制的介入和推动之后，这种变化就能够理解了。 然后，在独立战争前后，也就是在美国诞生的前后，明确禁止进口和彻底禁奴的立法文件又大批出现。文件中也逐步出现清楚的道德诉求的文字，“我们不仅要防止更多的黑人失去自由，还要让已经不幸失去自由的黑人恢复自由”。 独立战争期间和美国建立以后，奴隶制也在作为北美精神主导的北方陆续结束。 在了解了类似马萨诸塞和宾夕法尼亚这样的相关历史之后，才发现这些文件所表达的一波三折，实际上很典型地反映了北方一个有逻辑的历史进程。他们都有过一个最初的人性思考和结论，也都有过一个抵御不了包括“王朝利益”在内的欲望浪潮冲击的阶段。但是，最终对人道的坚持终于战胜了人类贪欲的一面，人类在对自身的反省中，走出坚实的一步。 因此，这里走过的最初一段路程。并不是你我原来所想象的，奴隶制从兴起到终结的历史，就完全是白人奴隶主和黑人奴隶之间压迫和反抗的对抗史。基于我前面提到过的原因，当时黑人还不可能成为这个舞台上的主角。实际上，从一开始，这就是人类良知和愚恶的角逐。你已经看到，在这一段历史中，这场角逐主要发生在北美殖民地的白人内部。这时，我们发现，原来人类的人性反省是进步的一个最重要的动力。 可是，这并不意味着在这一个历史阶段，黑人就没有力量，只是他们的力量是无声的。黑人的力量就是他们失去的自由，就是他们所承受的苦难。他们以深重苦难凝聚起一个巨大的质量，逼视这片土地上的人们，检验人类对于人性的自省能力。 一块土地，一群人，乃至整个人类，它的真正希望所在就是它的自省能力和良知醒悟，而这又是建立在理性的基础上的。 在北方，奴隶问题的解决确实是一个自省和清理的过程。在那里，这场思想上的清理在美国独立战争过程中就已经基本上完成了。 你一定要发问了，独立战争不是并没有解决美国的奴隶问题，这个问题不是拖到独立战争八十几年以后的南北战争才解决的吗？ 你的问题牵涉到殖民地的北美和新诞生的美国的一些特殊情况，这些情况也导致了解决奴隶问题的复杂性。这些问题都不是三言两语能说清的，我得在下一封信里再回答你了。别忘了来信！ wish it is good! Linda