评论
打印
The fight for the soul of a nation is just getting started.
一场民族灵魂之战蓄势待发。
Midway through the 19th century, America is entering the modern world.
十九世纪中叶美国开始进入现代社会，
In 20 years, there'll be Levi's Jeans, chewing gum and hot dogs.
此后的二十年内，李维斯牛仔，口香糖还有热狗相继出现，
But the nation is split, being torn apart a t the seams dividing North and South.
但是国家已经分裂了被分割为南北两部分。
Slavery became not simply a political issue, not simply an economic issue, but a moral issue as well. It became the issue that defined North and South in the 1850s.
奴隶制已经不仅仅是一个政治问题或者一个经济问题而演变成了伦理道德问题，它成了当时区别北方与南方的关键因素。”
September 1850. The Fugitive Slave Law brings the brutality of Southern Slavery to the North. Now, no African -American is safe, anywhere.
1850年9月，《逃奴法案》将南方奴隶制的残酷带到了北方，非裔美国人失去了最后的安身之地。
Gentlemen, you've made a mistake. This is a place of business. I'm a tailor, these are my clients. I'm a freeman. I'm not a slave, gentlemen.
先生们，你们弄错了，这是营业场所。我是裁缝，这几位是我的客户，我是自由人不是奴隶，先生们。
The Fugitive Slave Law meant that if you were a slave and you managed to escape to the North, your master could come and get you, and you had no recourse.
《逃奴法案》意味着如果你当过奴隶并成功逃到北方，原先的主人可以前来将你抓回，没人能保护你。
Not only that, if you were a free Negro, they still could sell you down the river. The search for runaway slaves had become a witch hunt.
不仅如此，如果你是自由的黑人仍然可能被卖到南方当奴隶，追捕逃跑的奴隶变成了一场政治迫害运动。
Any African-American can be condemned simply with an accusation. Even a freeman has no right to a trial by jury.
任何非裔美国人只要受到起诉即被定罪，即使自由人也没有接受陪审团审判的权利。
Federal magistrates get $10 to rule them slaves, five to set them free. Ordinary people are outraged by the new law. Abolitionist newsp apers and literature spread like wildfire.
联邦地方法官判定奴隶身份能得十美元，判决自由人身份能得五美元。这项新的法案引起了普通市民的强烈愤慨，废奴报纸和文学作品如野火燎原般涌现。
Published in 1852,"Uncle Tom's Cabin" becomes the best -selling book of the century, after the Bible.
1852年出版的《汤姆叔叔的小屋》成为十九世纪仅次于《圣经》的畅销书，
A passionate antislavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an unknown housewife from Connecticut.
这是一本由哈里特·比彻·斯托所作的充满废奴情绪的小说，她是来自康涅狄格州的一名不起眼的主妇。
It mainly appeals to women who are becoming politicized for the first time.Slavery is the burning issue of the day.
它的主要读者群是这个时期开始参与政治生活的妇女，奴隶制是当时最紧迫的政治议题，
As America expands across the continent, North and South face off over each new territory. Will it be slave-owning or free?
时值美国向大陆扩张之际北方和南方争夺每一块新获得的土地，新的州实行奴隶制还是自由制？
The Northerners began to see that, wait a minute, they're not gonna keep slavery just in the South, they wanna take slavery West and to turn the country into a slave country.
北方人开始意识到不对劲，南方人不会满足于将奴隶制限制在南方，他们也想在西部实行奴隶制以至将整个国家都变为奴隶制国家。
Americans from all over the country are flooding into the new territories on the frontier. Each becomes a battleground.
来自全国各个地方的美国人都想涌进拓荒前线的新地界，每块新土地都成了战场，是实行奴隶制还是自由制。
Will it be slave -owning or free? It comes to a head in Kansas. A peaceful protetest turns violent.
这个争执在堪萨斯州达到顶峰，和平抗议演变成了暴力行动。
