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Alexis de Tocqueville’s commentary and analysis on American society in his given time period have been quite extreme and biased. The advancements that have launched our society to where it is today would definitely generate different forms of productive thinking in relation to contemporary problems than that of Tocqueville’s.  Tocqueville has touched on various topics throughout several of his writings: this includes, How Equality Suggests to the Americans the Indefinite Perfectibility of Man, The Exterior form of North America, and The Present and Probably Future Condition of the Three Races that Inhabit the Territory of the United States. Much has changed since the time that Tocqueville has spoken on the circumstances of America: human nature has developed, the land has been developed, and social equality is an area of major focus. Tocqueville’s thinking and methodology have expired due to the progression of America.

            The reading, How Equality Suggests to the Americans the Idea of the Indefinite Perfectibility of Man was relatively interesting to me. Based off of the title, ‘time’ stuck out to me most. The reason being is because different generations that derive from different periods of time offer different perspectives. In other words, humanity is always changing, to some, it may seem for the better, but to others, it could be for the worse.  Tocqueville brings up an example of a sailor and why his ship is only meant to last for so long. Ships are only occupied for so long due to the progress that scientists and engineers are able to make. As time goes on, it can be inferred that certain things advance and in this case, it is the development of ships. Democratic nations are said to be responsible for this as progression is accepted and encouraged. Generations of time are said to be building off of one another.

            The reading, The Exterior Form of North America by Tocqueville lies out and describes what America looked like geographically before it was settled. North America was known as a hotbed for opportunity at the time and land was extremely valuable. As many individuals know, there was a sense of rivalry between the settlers and Indigenous population. Tocqueville goes on to emphasize how they basically take up space on this newly founded land and do not develop it, but rather uses its’ resources. Contrary to popular belief, the Indigenous appreciated what they had as they used forms of religion and farming to show this. Many Indigenous were confused as to why they were being treated in such a harsh way. The reason being is because the whites felt as though they were missing out, or would not get the opportunity to do what they wished with this land. Native Americans were seen as ‘savages’ by the whites and not much could persuade or convince them otherwise. Obviously, though, there are exceptions to the stereotypes that loomed America at the time and people did not entirely agree with the majority. Without the Indigenous, early land development would not have taken place the same way it was without them.

            In The Present and Probably Future Condition of the Three Races that Inhabit the Territory of the United States by Tocqueville, there is a heavy emphasis on the three groups that occupied North America at the time: the Indigenous people, African Americans, and the Europeans. The Indigenous people along with the blacks faced much of the systematic influences that were being pressured upon them by the Europeans. The Indigenous were seen as useless to the development of American land and the blacks were used as slaves under European rule. Racism is a reoccurring theme that takes place in this chapter, but the focus is more intended towards blacks than the Indigenous. Tocqueville disapproves of African Americans; the ideas of coexistence between blacks and whites are not present in Tocqueville’s eyes. In today’s terms, coexistence is stressed, but not always occurring.

            To an extent, American society and culture can learn from Tocqueville’s thinking. Building off of past experiences is critical to the development of new ideologies. Despite the fact that Tocqueville’s thinking is heavily outdated, he could assist the ways in which society functions today. Modern individuals have the ability and potential to grow and move beyond his ways; therefore, to a minor extent, Tocqueville can provoke American society to productively think about how to address contemporary problems.

“This kind of aristocracy sympathized with the body of the people whose passions and interests it easily embraced; but it was too weak and too short loved to excite either love or hatred. This was the class which headed the insurrection in the south and furnished the best leaders of the American revolution”

This quote from Tocqueville’s third chapter really stuck out to me with the complexity and overall embodiment of America at the time. He is saying that this form of governance was equally influential in the two regions of the country but had vast differences in the way it influenced the people. The inhabitants in the North were loving and fought for equality along with justice and rights for all. Yet in the South it made the move towards slavery and profit. I find it so interesting that people from all walks of life who came to America for a fresh start at a new life had become so separated in their beliefs of the system. Some found it as a way for them to gain profit with slavery and gold while many found it as a way for liberation from their motherland’s strict laws. The government for the people by the people was a great way for those who had been previously prosecuted to find a safe home, but it wasn’t a safe home for those who were brought there against their will. 

In Tocqueville’s second chapter he specifically talks about the creation of America, he says that is it is one of the few countries that we can trace and follow from the origin. He describes the new country as having two main regions, the North and the South. Whereas the North is inhabited by intellectual puritans who, “[did not] cross the Atlantic to improve their situation or to increase their wealth; it was purely intellectual craving that called them”. He also observed that the south was filled with men who had no morals and saw no law, they were there to create a fortune with gold. He witnessed that these men established slavery of the natives quickly after landing in Virginia. It is hard to tell where Tocqueville stands on the origin of America’s democracy. As talked about in class, he lists the advantages and disadvantages of both democracy and aristocracy in his works, yet when he is talking about the settlers who ‘left’ the safety of aristocracy, he shows the new way of democracy/leadership by the people as an unstable mess. I found these readings very interesting because they challenged my previous understandings of Tocqueville’s writing. He seems to be less open minded here then he is in later chapters, even though he is still unbiased towards both systems. 

Tocqueville has gone in depth of the individual suffering of the three races in America in this section of his book. He describes the three races as the white, educated families, the stolen Africans, and the displaced American Indians. He writes that the white Americans have come from Europe for a better life but in the process of freedom they have enslaved two other races. The new Anglo- Americans have taken Africans from their homeland forced them to work. These are men and women who are stuck between not being Africans and not being Americans, where their native tongue and religion is not allowed and a foreign one is forced on them, and if they don’t comply, they will suffer along with the others. Tocqueville puts it perfectly by saying, “he makes them subservient to his use and when he cannot subdue them, he destroys them…. Taking their humanity”. While the new Americans are stripping Africa’s from their humanity, they are born into this slavery, even before they are conceived. There is a cycle of slavery that seems to have no end in the eyes of Tocqueville. He has witnessed these Americans flee from one country to enslave and own another human for the vison of a profit. This system seems very undemocratic to someone who thought the Americas were a safe haven where the people are supposed to be heard, and it is. Tocqueville went to the Americas to observes a new way of governence, democracy, and he found another system that enslaves its people and forces labor. 

Not only did Tocqueville observe and describe the enslavement of the Africans, but he noticed the third race in the middle of extinction. The American Indians that were there before the Europeans got there, were being displaced and run out of their homes. Once living in surplus and fulfillment and not running for their lives, trying to find the resources needed to sustain life. These American Indians were forced out of their homes and driven to the plains of the west were food and resources are scarce. These populations were documented as ‘destroyed and demolished’ by Tocqueville only in the 1830s. He saw such misery of this races that he felt it was too great to put in words, because it was more of a sympathetic and empathetic feeling to be felt then written down where it could not be justified. The missionary missions to teach the American Indians were seen as unsuccessful and without lasting success. This process of another forced religion and civilization on another race by the new Americans, was not democratic to Tocqueville who believed little in the system at first. He saw that the injustice being done could not be right and could not be along the lines of this new democracy, but he saw no end. The new Americans saw that if they ended this “evil it would imperil their own exitance” on the continent. 

In “The Present and Probably Future Condition of the Three Races that Inhabit the Territory of the United States” chapter by Tocqueville, there is a heavy emphasis on the three groups that occupied North America at the time: the Indigenous people, African Americans, and the Europeans. The indigenous people along with the blacks faced much of the systematic influences that were being pressured upon them by the Europeans. The Indians were seen as useless to the development of American land and the blacks were used as slaves under European rule. Racism is a reoccurring theme that takes place in this chapter, but the focus is more intended towards blacks than the Indians. Tocqueville disapproves of African Americans. He asks his readers to envision being on a steamboat ship in the Ohio River. To the right of him is the Northern state of Ohio and to the left is the Southern state of Kentucky. He claims that opportunity arises in Ohio while idleness plagues Kentucky. The ideas of coexistence between blacks and whites are not present in Tocqueville’s eyes.