New Jersey to Apologize for Slavery?

Herald Tribune ^ | January 1, 2008 | AP

[dcgard]

TRENTON, New Jersey: New Jersey lawmakers begin considering this week a measure that would make theirs the first northern U.S. state to offer an expression of regret for slavery, an institution that one Republican lawmaker said blacks today should remember led to their becoming Americans.

The resolution, which is to be discussed in a state Assembly committee on Thursday, expresses "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery and apologizes for the wrongs inflicted by slavery in the U.S. If approved, it would make New Jersey the fifth U.S. state to offer a similar apology or expression of regret for the institution that served as a catalyst for the U.S. Civil War, the only war to be fought on American soil.

[dcgard]

I don’t quite understand who are we apologizing to? Chapter 2 - Reparations?

[K-oneTexas]

Regret. Reparations? New Jersey. Maybe this is the beginning of many apologize for deeds committed by all our forefathers.

[PeterPrinciple]

an institution that one Republican lawmaker said blacks today should remember led to their becoming Americans.
-
I have met many Africans would would give anything to be an American.....

[LouAvul]

I never owned a slave and never shot an Indian and refuse to bear some bogus burden of guilt imposed upon me by the PC crowd.

Don't like it? Blow it out your ..... er... ear.

[spunkets]

"the U.S. Civil War, the only war to be fought on American soil."

Reality ain't one of their strong points.

[Rumplemeyer]

Just when you though New Jersey Democrats could not make bigger fools of themselves...hey nitwits New Jersey never allowed slavery, it was a “free” state. This used to be such a nice place to live.

[canuck_conservative]

I guess The War of 1812 doesn’t count.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

My ancestors were in Eastern Europe until the 1900’s. I’m innocent, even though I live in this cesspool of a state.

[NativeNewYorker]

New Jersey banned the importation of slaves in 1788, but it also forbade free Negroes from settling in the state.[4] In the years after the American Revolution, with its emphasis on legal equality and the rights of man, legislators in northern states were moved to abolish slavery. The New Jersey state legislature was the last of these, passing a law in 1804 for the gradual abolition of slavery in 1804.[5] The 1804 statute and subsequent laws freed only slaves born after the laws were passed. In addition, African Americans had to serve lengthy apprenticeships to the owners of their mothers. Women were freed at 21, but men were not freed until age 25. Slaves born before these laws were passed were "apprenticed for life."

Although at first New Jersey allowed black men to vote, in 1807 the legislature disfranchised them. In 1830 two-thirds of the persons enslaved in the North were in New Jersey. It was not until 1846 that New Jersey completely abolished slavery.[6]

From wikipedia.

[Rumplemeyer]

Not my forefathers, they came from Ireland during the famine, never owned a slave...were treated worse than...NINA (No Irish Need Apply).

[RDTF]

LOL!

[MileHi]

So New Jersey is gonna roll back taxes and apologize to her citizens?

Didn't think so...

[Brad from Tennessee]

What about all the Italians and Chinamen who died building the transcontinental railroad?

[ken21]

why shouldn’t everybody apologize to everybody?

and then we’ll get on living.

but if somebody doesn’t apologize, then

maybe that’s what it’s all about—

a new superiority and inferiority.

[jimfree]

I guess I need to apologize for New Jersey. But I don’t apologize for Cleveland.

[clintonh8r]

Liberalism is a mental defect.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Maybe they have different history books in Noo Joisey?

War of 1812 (how about the burning of the White House?), Mexican-American War (in what is now Texas), and...oh, yeah... the American Revolution.

[Sooth2222]

Yes, any New Jersey legislator who served in 1804 who is still serving in the legislature should apologise....

Abolish the death penalty, gay mariage, outlaw ammunition. Think the legislature is doing everything it can think of to avoid dealing with that huge $3,000,000,000 budget deficit.

[donna]

I want New Jersey to apologize to me because, sniff, women couldn’t vote until 1920 (oh, and reparations).

[flintsilver7]

That’s the story of a lot of us. My grandparents emigrated in the early 20th century. My grandfather walked 15 miles to work for six days then came home for Sunday to spend with his family. He lived with other Polish immigrants in a small Pennsylvania town. It’s a common story.

Many of us (or our ancestors, as it were) have absolutely no connection to slavery. Chances are the people “apologizing” are of European descent.

This is stupid, and it goes to show you that the government is often involved in little of worth.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Yes, any New Jersey legislator who served in 1804 who is still serving in the legislature should apologise....

All of those legislators are dead, but there is one surviving journalist from that era.

[dcgard]

New Jersey is really on a roll...first doing away with the death penalty, allowing same sex unions. I wish NW NJ could separate from the rest of the state, we are for the most part very strong red counties (Warren, Sussex, Morris, Hunterdon).

[donna]

The rest of the story:

...throughout the course of the Civil War, over 80,000 enlisted in the Northern army to defeat the Southern rebels. In total, soldiers from New Jersey formed 4 militia regiments, 33 infantry regiments, 3 cavalry regiments, and 5 batteries of light artillery. (snip)

[AlaskaErik]

If approved, it would make New Jersey the fifth U.S. state to offer a similar apology or expression of regret for the institution that served as a catalyst for the U.S. Civil War, the only war to be fought on American soil.

I'm no historian, but I do remember learning about the British invading us during the War of 1812.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

we are for the most part very strong red counties (Warren, Sussex, Morris, Hunterdon).

I live in Morris county, which is strongly red, as opposed to most of the state, which is strongly Red.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I'm no historian, but I do remember learning about the British invading us during the War of 1812.

The Islamofascists invaded us on September 11, 2001.

[Gay State Conservative]

Not my forefathers, they came from Ireland during the famine, never owned a slave...were treated worse than...NINA (No Irish Need Apply).

Same here.My uncle (my Dad's older brother) spoke of having trouble getting jobs in the 1920's in Boston.As for apologies...any "apology" that Massachusetts might issue won't come from me.Regrets for slavery? Certainly.But *apologies* need only come from those directly responsible and need only be issued to those directly enslaved.

[Maceman]

If anyone ought to apologize for slavery in our history, it ought to be the Democratic Party, which fought emancipation and civil rights for blacks with a century’s worth of vehemence.

[K-oneTexas]

why shouldn’t everybody apologize to everybody?

I was sitting here thinking after my other post. We have apologized to the Japanese-Americans for putting them in internment camps during WWII. Did we do the same to German-American or Italian-Americans in internment camps during WWII?

What about the earliest ... American-Indians. Apologies for taking their land, giving them disease they never had, etc?

What about apologies to women ... who were treated as property for how many decades/centuries? This sounds like slavery too.

Sorry for rambling and thinking about things I don't know. I know my forefathers came from England & Scotland or Ireland? (McCleary) on Mothers side and German & American-Indians (from the East Coast/PA/NY) on Fathers side. All relatives old enough to know the 'Family Tree' over one generation passed over 50 years ago.

[hellbender]

Yes, and even WWII. The Japs occupied part of the Aleutian Islands, in Alaska. They also bombed Hawaii, of course.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

it ought to be the Democratic Party, which fought emancipation and civil rights for blacks with a century’s worth of vehemence.

And are continuing to destroy black self-sufficiency with their nanny-state welfarism, their affirmative action, and their non-competitive government schools which preach the gospel of low expectations to their Koolaid-drinking minions.

[metmom]

Your state is crazy.

They are in the north. They never were a slave state. They fought against slavery. What’s to apologize for?

[Calpernia]

Just when you thought this state couldn’t get anymore embarrassing....

[NativeNewYorker]

Yes. In round numbers, the number of northern casualties roughly equalled the number of slaves imported into the US from Africa.

This of course ignores the historical critique that says the Civil War was really about taxes and control, with slavery entering the equation as a rationale of convenience....

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I know my forefathers came from England & Scotland or Ireland?

Well, if it was Scotland, you need to apologize to me for all the Glenlivet 18 you made me drink on New Year's Eve. :)

[HoosierHawk]

I wonder if it's a defect or a deranged strategy.

Throughout America, these leftist enclaves come up with the most bizarre ideas to occupy the attention of the all too liberal media while stuffing their pockets and blaming the "culture of corruption."

It makes me sick.

[ken21]

my reply above was sarcastic.

[metmom]

Exactly.

My ancestors came to this country decades after the Civil War. They were virtual slaves themselves over there, the way the aristocracy was set up in Russia.

My family never contributed to the slave trade or participated in ownership in any way. Why should I have to pay for what someone else’s ancestor’s did to someone else’s ancestors?

BTW, I watched Amazing Grace last night. Great movie.

[hellbender]

Just a reminder. As black conservative Thos. Sowell points out, the number of white Europeans kidnapped and enslaved by Muslims from North Africa exceeded the number of blacks transported to America as slaves by Europeans.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Legislatures apologize for everything but their own, current mistakes.

[CharlesWayneCT]

New Jersey banned the importation of slaves in 1788, but it also forbade free Negroes from settling in the state

That sounds so much like a democrat.

Maybe New Jersey should apologize to the rest of us for being a state.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

If your great-great-great grandfather was Abraham Lincoln and mine was John Wilkes Booth, would I have to apologize to you?

[epow]

New Jersey had one of the largest slave populations in the northern colonies, was the last northern state to free slaves and was the last northeast state to abolish slavery, doing so in 1846.

I recently read somewhere that RI was the last northern state to abolish slavery, I guess that was bad information.

I hadn't known that any of the northern colonies or states had ever allowed slavery, but apparently almost all of them did from the early days of colonization up until the late 18th century and even much later in some. That's a black mark on those colonies' records,(no pun intended) but today's white people aren't responsible for what their ancestors may have done 2 centuries ago.

[JewishRighter]

New Jersey would be much better off apologizing for being the national laughing-stock corruption stinkhole that it is as well as being an also-ran liberal pc butt-kissing pathetic second-rate Massachusets.

[donna]

Who knows why leaders start wars. Brave soldiers fight because they believe in good.

[Lancey Howard]

New Jersey to Apologize for Slavery?

Heh, why not? That place is so far down the toilet they may as well just go right on down the entire goofball liberal Democrat agenda until they hit every item. I'm sure "fisting for third-graders" is on there somewhere.... maybe even before socialized health care.

[frithguild]

Good point. All of my ancestors arrived after the Emancipation Proclaimation. Why should I apologize?

[Calpernia]

They should apologize for wiping out our states heritage in 9 words.