I was very interested by what Tocqueville had to say in “THE PRESENT AND PROBABLE FUTURE CONDITION OF THE THREE RACES THAT INHABIT THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES”. Mostly, I thought a lot about his views on slavery, and what they really mean. Obviously, Tocqueville harbored some prejudices, as he was partially a product of his time. Still, he seemed to want to understand the hardships minorities faced in America, and recognized the problem of them. I was especially intrigued by his argument about how the South and the North cannot agree about abolishing slavery because it is much more convenient for the north than of the south. He points out that the farther north one goes, the less African Americans one will find. He makes many other points surrounding this idea, and I was just wondering how valid this is as an argument. In present day America, we now know that slaves were able to be integrated into society, yet it is clear to see Tocqueville has many apprehensions about this. How often should apprehensions such as these stop people from doing something they know is right? He argues that slavery will have a permanent effect on America, and to some extent, I agree with him. Tocqueville clearly sees a bad situation in America while he is writing, and ponders how it can be worth it for the people in power of the country to try and change it.
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2 replies on “Tocqueville on Slavery”
It’s a telling point indeed that although slavery is confined to the southern part of the country, this does not mean the question of how to organize and maintain a society in which members of various races co-exist had been solved in the northern states during Tocqueville’s visit to the US. As you note in citing T., there were relatively few blacks in the north at this point in US history, and fewer as you moved farther from the southern states.
What do you think this point indicates regarding the difficulty of maintaining a democratic and multi-racial society, especially one in which the various races have historically been in relationships of systematic inequality?
I think Tocqueville had a very bleak outlook on solutions to these problems, as he believed that the Native Americans would die out and seemed to think former slaves would never be able to integrate themselves into the country, especially in the south. I think Americans couldn’t afford to be as bleak as Tocqueville, but living in a society where a group was formerly oppressed is an extremely challenging task. Historically, we know that African Americans were not fully integrated into society right away, as Jim Crow laws and other oppressive forces existed. Even today, the two groups Tocqueville talked about face massive problems and oppression. The echoes of systematic inequality have not yet faded, but even though it sometimes seems to be an impossible task, I believe as Americans we need to try our best always to maintain a fair, democratic multi-racial society that everyone can be proud to be a part of.