08: Reconstruction

How the facts of American history have in the last half century been falsified because the nation was ashamed. The South was ashamed because it fought to perpetuate human slavery. The North was ashamed because it had to call in the black men to save the Union, abolish slavery and establish democracy.

For centuries, the Dutch State and its representatives facilitated, stimulated, preserved and profited from slavery.<br> For centuries, in the name of the Dutch State, human beings were made into commodities, exploited and abused.<br> For centuries, under Dutch state authority, human dignity was violated in the most horrific way possible.<br> And successive Dutch governments after 1863 failed to adequately see and acknowledge that our slavery past continued to have negative effects and still does.

Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologise for the past actions of the Dutch State: to enslaved people in the past, everywhere in the world, who suffered as a consequence of those actions, as well as to their daughters and sons, and to all their descendants, up to the present day.