After 400 years, Virginia issues official apology for slavery

· Resolution passed in former confederate capital
· 'Profound regret' for enslavement of millions


Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Monday February 26, 2007

Guardian
The state of Virginia, the heart of the confederacy during the civil war, has issued the first official apology for slavery and the exploitation of native Americans by the country's white settlers.

In a resolution that passed unanimously in both chambers of the state general assembly in Richmond, legislators offered their "profound regret" for the enslavement of millions of Americans.

"The moral standards of liberty and equality have been transgressed during much of Virginia's and America's history," the resolution says. It calls the enslavement of millions of Africans and the exploitation of native Americans "the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history".

The collective expression of remorse is believed to be the first of its kind to recognise that the foundations of America were built on exploitation. Its symbolism was underlined by its delivery from Richmond, the former capital of the confederacy and home at the outset of the civil war in 1861 to half a million of the four million African-Americans living in slavery.
The display of contrition was timed to mark the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the English settlement of Jamestown in 1607. The first recorded instance of slavery in the New World was at Jamestown 12 years later with the landing of a Dutch ship at the colonial outpost bearing 20 Africans in chains who were to be sold as indentured servants.
By the early 18th century, such enslavement was enshrined in Virginia's legal code, and slaves became crucial to an economy built on the cultivation of tobacco and cotton. The general assembly passed laws sparing white plantation owners from prosecution should a slave die in their custody, and allowed runaway slaves to be hunted down and killed.
The injustice was not entirely righted with Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation in 1865, the resolution acknowledges. "The abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding."

Virginia's apology is the most recent attempt by a southern state to put the past to rights. Maryland and Missouri are considering similar measures, and other states have begun to compensate African-Americans for the wrongs of the past.

Florida has paid compensation to the descendants of an all-black town that was destroyed by a white lynch mob in 1923.

"This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution," said Donald McEachin, a Democratic sponsor of the bill, who is a descendant of slaves.

However, the apology was not without controversy. Earlier this year, another member of the house, Frank Hargrove, said African-Americans should "get over" slavery, claiming he should not have to apologise for something that happened before he was born.


Strange relations

Genealogists hired by a New York newspaper to trace the ancestry of the civil rights activist Al Sharpton said yesterday his forebears were slaves owned by the family of a southern white senator who was an icon of segregation. The bizarre connection between Mr Sharpton and the late South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond was established after two weeks of research, the Daily News reported.

Thurmond was among the most fervent defenders of segregation, speaking non-stop for 24 hours on in the US Senate to block civil rights legislation. After his death in 2003, it was found that he had fathered a child by a teenage black maid.

Mr Sharpton was stunned by the findings. "I always wondered what was the background of my family," he told the newspaper. "But nothing could prepare me for this." The genealogists found documents in a Florida court showing that Mr Sharpton's great grandfather, his wife and two children, had been given as a gift to a Julia Thurmond in the state.


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Virginia is first state to apologise for slavery
[Published: Monday 26, February 2007 - 10:52]

By Andrew Buncombe


Virginia has become the first of the US states formally to apologise for slavery, expressing its "profound regret" for its role. It also apologised for exploiting Native Americans.

Meeting on the grounds of the former Confederate Capitol, the Virginia General Assembly unanimously voted to pass a measure of apology. Sponsors of the apology said they knew of no other state that had passed such a measure.



"This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution," said Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored it in the House of Delegates. Mr McEachin, 45, is the great-grandson of a North Carolina slave who moved to Virginia after the Civil War. He added: "What we had was people with a shared history - those who may have been the descendants of slaves, those who may have been descendants of slave owners - they're all here in the General Assembly and we were able to come together for this."



The resolution said government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history. The abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding."



The apology comes ahead of commemorations in May to mark the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in America, at Jamestown in 1607. The first Africans arrived in 1619.



The resolution was the latest step in a series of moves that Virginia has made to address its segregationist past. In 1989 it became the first state to elect a black governor when Douglas Wilder won election.



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[align=center]Virginia assembly to apologise for slavery
published: Monday | February 26, 2007 [/align]

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP):
Meeting on the grounds of the former Confederate capitol, the Virginia General Assembly voted unanimously on Saturday to express "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.[/b]
Sponsors of the resolution say they know of no other state that has apologised for slavery Missouri lawmakers are considering such a measure. The resolution does not carry the weight of law but sends an important symbolic message, supporters said.

"This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution," said delegate A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored the resolution in the House of Delegates.

The resolution passed the House 96-0 and cleared the 40-member Senate on a unanimous voice vote. It does not require Governor Timothy M. Kaine's approval.

The measure also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans".

The resolution was introduced as Virginia begins its celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. Richmond, home to a popular boulevard lined with statues of Confederate heroes, later became another point of arrival for Africans and a slave-trade hub.

The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding".

Black voter turnout suppressed[/b]
In Virginia, black voter turnout was suppressed with a poll tax and literacy tests before those practices were struck down by federal courts, and state leaders responded to federally-ordered school desegregation with a "massiveresistance" movement in the 1950s and early '60s. Some communities created exclusive whites-only schools.

The apology is the latest in a series of strides Virginia has made in overcoming its segregationist past. Virginia was the first state to elect a black Governor - L. Douglas Wilder in 1989, and the Legislature took a step toward atoning for Massive Resistance in 2004 by creating a scholarship fund for blacks whose schools were shut down between 1954 and 1964.

Among those voting for the measure was delegate Frank D. Hargrove, an 80-year-old Republican who infuriated black leaders last month by saying "black citizens should get over" slavery.
After enduring a barrage of criticism, Hargrove successfully co-sponsored a resolution calling on Virginia to celebrate "Juneteenth," a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

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