Editors --- "Senate Joint Resolution Number 332: Acknowledging with profound regret the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and calling for reconciliation among all Virginians (US) - Digest" [2007] AUIndigLawRw 32; (2007) 11(1) Australian Indigenous Law Review 141

• Senate Joint Resolution Number 332: Acknowledging with profound regret the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and calling for reconciliation among all Virginians

Senate Joint Resolution Number 332: Acknowledging with profound regret the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and calling for reconciliation among all Virginians

Agreed to by the Senate, February 24, 2007

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 24, 2007

State of Virginia, United States of America

In February 2007 the Virginian Legislature passed a resolution expressing ‘profound regret’ for the slavery of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and calling for reconciliation among all Virginians.

2007 marks the 400th anniversary of the English settlement of Jamestown, which was founded in May 1607. The resolution, proposed as the legislature met on the grounds of the former Confederate Capitol, Richmond, was passed 96-0 by the House of Delegates and unanimously by voice in the State Senate.

The resolution refers to the Declaration of Independence, and resolves that ‘despite the self-evident character of these fundamental principles, the moral standards of liberty and equality have been transgressed during much of Virginia’s and America’s history’.

The resolution also refers to previous laws that restricted the rights of Native Americans to travel, to testify in court, and to inherit property, and the system of slavery under which Africans were ‘brutalized, humiliated, dehumanised, and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage…’

The resolution provides that ‘the most abject apology for wrongs cannot right them; yet the spirit of true repentance on behalf of a government, and, through it, a people, can promote reconciliation and healing…’, and resolves that ‘the General Assembly hereby acknowledge with profound regret the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and call for reconciliation among all Virginians…’

The full text of this resolution is available on the website of the Virginia General assembly: <http://leg1.state.va.us/cgibin/legp504.exe?071+ful+SJ332ER> .