New Jersey Becomes the First Northern State to Apologize For Its Role in Slavery

By TOM HESTER Jr.Associated Press Writer
TRENTON, N.J. (AP)

New Jersey became the first Northern state to apologize for slavery, as legislators approved a resolution Monday expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in the practice.
The Assembly and the Senate 29-2 both voted overwhelmingly to approve the resolution, which expresses the Legislature's opinion without requiring action by the governor.

"This resolution does nothing more than say New Jersey is sorry about its shameful past," said Assemblyman William Payne, a Democrat who sponsored the measure.
The resolution offers an apology "for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects in the United States of America."

It states that in New Jersey, "the vestiges of slavery are ever before African-American citizens, from the overt racism of hate groups to the subtle racism encountered when requesting health care, transacting business, buying a home, seeking quality public education and college admission, and enduring pretextual traffic stops and other indignities."

Legislators in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia have issued formal apologies for slavery.

According to the resolution, New Jersey had one of the largest slave populations in the Northern colonies and was the last state in the Northeast to formally abolish slavery, not doing so until 1846.

The state didn't ratify the constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery until January 1866, a month after it had already become federal law. Opponents said the apology was a meaningless gesture. Assemblyman Richard Merkt, a Republican, said everyone deems slavery an abomination. "But this was a sin that was atoned for in blood 150 years ago by the death of 650,000 Americans," Merkt said, referring to the Civil War.


My comment to this: Part of the reason people feel the need to oppose a formal apology for slavery is they are racists at the very core of their being. You weren't taken from you homeland, you didn't lose a language, name or religion. Your ancestors from whereever they came from moved here by their own accord, got paid a fair wage for work. My ancestors were brought and sold here, never paid a fair wage for work. "650,000 americans dieing in the civil war atoned" for 400 years of a profitable slave trade? I understand, if I were white and born with a sense of privilege, I would think the same way.

Amazingly, everyone can understand the Jews, including Black Folks, but no one including Jews understands how Blacks feel. Slavery had an impact on the world and until everyone starts to recognize the pain, suffering and disadvantage it has caused and start the healing process, we each will retreat to our corners until the bell tolls again.