This month marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. Civil War - a conflict that nearly tore the United States apart. Eleven southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, vowing to maintain their economic system based on agriculture and slavery.
4月12日是美国内战打响150周年的日子。这场冲突几乎使美国分裂。11个南方州最终脱离合众国，建立了邦联国，并且誓言要维持以农业和奴隶制为基础的经济制度。
On April 12, 1861, Confederate soldiers fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. It was the first act of open aggression by the South against the North. After four years of bloody battles, the Confederates surrendered.
Today, the war between the states still resonates with Americans, and in some ways, the nation is still healing from that division.
今天，美国人心中仍在对这场战争进行反思，战争带给整个国家的创伤仍在弥合之中。
Record casualties
Well over a half million Americans died during the Civil War, the equivalent of losing 2 percent of the population. "You can imagine the impact that this would have on whole communities throughout the country," says Ray Brown, chief of interpretation for Manassas National Battlefield Park, site of one of the war’s first battles.
马纳萨斯国家战场公园的讲解员雷.布朗介绍说，共有62万美国人在内战中丧生，相当于美国总人口的百分之2。他说：“你能想象这场战争给整个国家人民带来的巨大影响。”
Brown believes that loss is responsible for "passions that have been passed on from generation to generation even at the remove of 150 years."
“而且为什么人们会把他们对这场战争的激情一代一代传承下去，即便是战争已经结束150年了。”
On a recent visit to Manassas, there is little evidence of that passion, but there is a desire to connect to the past. Park superintendent Ed Clark says the battlefield is a good place to do that.
马纳萨斯是内战初期的几个战场之一。今天在这个战场上，人们感受不到那种激情了，但希望能够通过来到这里拾起过去的记忆。
"You can actually stand out here on the fields, see what they saw. But I think there is also an emotional connection that can be made on battlefields. This is a place where Americans fought. This is a place where Americans died."
The park gets about 600,000 visitors a year. People like Marianne Lee, who came with her children and their friends.
"I think it is important to look back at this particular war, because it is what made our union. We separated and yet managed to come back together."
她说：“我觉得回顾这场战争是很重要的，因为它成就了我们的联邦。我们曾经分裂，但最终又回到了一起。”
Mutual sacrifice
Yale historian David Blight, one of the leading experts on the Civil War, says the United States reunited after the war "by finding the mutuality of sacrifice between the two sides."
耶鲁大学的大卫.布莱特是研究美国内战的主要历史学家之一。他说：“在一场可怕的内战后重建一个国家，一种做法就是找到双方做出的共同牺牲。”
By the 50th anniversary soldiers who fought on both sides were getting together for reunions. In 1913, some 50,000 veterans assembled in Gettysburg, the site of the war’s bloodiest battle.
布赖特说，这就是在美国内战发生50周年时人们所做的。当时，来自南北双方的大约5万名参战老兵聚集到内战中最血腥的战场─葛底斯堡。
"What we did in this country is we suppressed having to talk about what caused that war or what its results or legacies were, focusing largely on honoring the soldier," says Blight.
他说：“在美国，我们避免谈论这场战争爆发的原因，或者战争导致了什么结局、遗留了什么问题。我们最关心的是纪念参战的士兵。”
Americans continued to ignore the issues 50 years later, during the centennial of the Civil War, according to Kevin Levin. A history teacher in Charlottesville, Virginia, Levin also maintains the popular blog, Civil War Memory.
按照维吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔历史教师凯文.莱文的说法，50年之后，也就是内战爆发100周年之际，人们继续忽略这些问题。莱文还是知名博客“内战记忆”的博主。
"The dominant interpretation of the early 1960s would have been focused on the bravery of Union and Confederate soldiers, the theme of reconciliation. Americans were more interested in remembering a war that united Americans rather than divided Americans."
他说：“1960年代初，对战争的解释主要集中在合众国和邦联国士兵的勇猛上，主题是和解。美国人更愿意记住团结了美国人、而不是分裂了美国人的一场战争。”
In the last few years, there has been renewed scholarship on the Civil War by Blight and other historians.
在过去几年，布赖特和其他历史学家继续对美国内战进行研究。
He says that we shouldn’t forget the military history. "But this time, we need to put the story of emancipation at the center of this narrative, because what really transformed the United States, were not those battles. What really transformed the United States was the process by which 4 million slaves were freed that necessitated a recrafting of our Constituion."
布赖特说：“需要清楚一点的是，我们并不是要牺牲军事历史。但是现在，我们需要把有关于解放奴隶的故事放在整个事件的中心，因为真正改变美国的是400万奴隶被解放的过程，从而使我们修改了宪法。”
Three new amendments
Following the War, three amendments were added to the Constitution. The 13th amendment abolished slavery forever. The 14th granted citizenship to anyone born in the United States and guaranteed equal protection to all citizens. And the 15th amendment guaranteed all citizens the right to vote.
美国宪法第十三修正案永久性地废除了奴隶制度。第十四修正案赋予任何在美国出生的人美国公民身份，并且确保所有公民得到同等保护。第十五修正案确保所有公民享有选举权。
Blight says the Civil War launched "a revolution in civil and political rights." But it did not last. It would take the Civil Rights movement, a full century later, to force the government to deliver fully on those promises.
但直到100年后的民权运动才迫使美国政府兑现了这些承诺。
Today, with an African-American in the White House, we have come a long way, but the legacies of the war are still being debated, says Blight.
时至今日，随着一位非洲裔美国人入住白宫，美国已经取得了长足的进步，然而美国内战遗留下来的问题仍在被人们争论着。
"Every time Americans debate the problem of States’ rights, the relationship of federal power to state power - which we are indeed having a roiling debate again, and every time we debate, not only race relations, but the very idea of what it means to be an American, multi-racial, greatly diverse society, we are debating the direct legacies of the Civil War."
布赖特说：“每次美国人讨论美国各州权力的问题、联邦权力与州权力之间关系的时候，我们实际上确实又在进行一轮新的讨论，还有每次我们辩论不仅仅是种族关系，而是一个美国人的真正意义是什么，一个多种族、非常多元化的社会的时候，我们就是在讨论美国内战留下的遗产。”
That, says blogger Levin, is one of the reasons Americans are still fascinated by the Civil War.
博客“内战记忆”的博主莱文说，这就是美国人仍然对内战情有独钟的原因之一：
"Even if we don’t know much about this period, there is a hold on us, an emotional hold. I think that explains why we still have a need to talk about it, because we are still struggling with many of those issues that came out of it."
“即便我们对这个时期了解的不多，我们还是对美国内战有一种情结。我认为这解释了为什么我们仍然在谈论它，因为我们仍然对由内战而引发的很多问题十分纠结。”
And as Americans mark the anniversary over the next four years, there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss the legacies - and lessons - of the Civil War.
随着美国人在今后4年里纪念内战150周年，他们会有很多机会讨论美国内战的遗产和教训。 |