Chapter Thirty-Eight: American Tragedies / 第三十八章：美国悲剧

The Trail of Tears / 眼泪之路

When the Boers settled in the southern African plains, they drove away the native tribes who lived there. But over in the United States, the American government had a different way of doing things.

当布尔人在南非南部平原定居时，他们赶走了生活在那里的原住民部落。但在美国，美国政府有不同的做法。

If American settlers wanted to build their houses on land where Native American tribes lived, they were supposed to pay for the land and sign a treaty explaining that the Native Americans had agreed to sell it.

如果美国定居者想在美洲原住民部落居住的土地上建造他们的房屋，他们应该为土地付款并签署条约，说明美洲原住民同意出售土地。

Often, the Native Americans weren't given much choice. And they were hardly ever paid enough money for their land. White settlers bought entire forests and farms with handfuls of cheap jewelry and a few pounds of tobacco.

通常，美洲原住民没有太多选择。他们几乎从未为自己的土地得到足够的金钱。白人定居者用几把廉价的珠宝和几磅烟草就买下了整片森林和农场。

By 1830, more and more Americans wanted to "buy" land from the Native Americans who lived in the Ohio Valley and in the southeast states. The United States was growing. Settlers coming from Europe, called immigrants, didn't want to go all the way out to the empty western lands of the Louisiana Purchase.

到1830年，越来越多的美国人想从居住在俄亥俄河谷和东南各州的美洲原住民那里"购买"土地。美国正在增长。来自欧洲的定居者，被称为移民，不想一路跑到路易斯安那购地的空旷西部土地。

So the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, signed a law called the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act said that the President could now take Native American land without asking for it or paying for it, as long as he gave the Native Americans who lived there an equal amount of land in the unsettled prairies of the west.

因此，美国总统安德鲁·杰克逊签署了一项名为《印第安人迁移法》的法律。《印第安人迁移法》规定，总统现在可以夺取美洲原住民的土地而不必请求或付款，只要他给居住在那里的美洲原住民在西部未开垦的草原上同等数量的土地。

Many Native Americans had begun to follow white customs. For years, they had lived in log houses, growing fruit trees and planting gardens. Their children went to schools run by white missionaries.

许多美洲原住民已经开始遵循白人的习俗。多年来，他们住在原木房屋里，种植果树和花园。他们的孩子们上白人传教士办的学校。

In the Southeast, five Indian tribes—the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek—had been nicknamed the "Five Civilized Tribes," because so many of them lived just like white settlers. Cherokee Indians had their own towns, with stores and churches. They published a newspaper written in both Cherokee and English.

在东南部，五个印第安部落——奇卡索族、乔克托族、塞米诺尔族、切罗基族和克里克族——被称为"五个文明部落"，因为他们中的许多人生活得就像白人定居者一样。切罗基印第安人有自己的城镇，有商店和教堂。他们出版用切罗基语和英语写的报纸。

Some of the Five Civilized Tribes decided that they could not fight the United States government. The Chickasaw loaded wagons, preparing to leave. The Choctaw Indians began their journey west in the middle of the winter, the year after the Act was passed.

五个文明部落中的一些决定他们不能战斗美国政府。奇卡索族装载马车，准备离开。乔克托印第安人在该法案通过后的那年冬天中期开始了他们向西的旅程。

The government had promised to give them money to buy food and clothes during the journey, but the money never arrived. The Choctaw ran out of blankets and coats. Many trudged toward their new homes barefoot, in the snow.

政府曾承诺给他们金钱在旅程中购买食物和衣服，但钱从未到达。乔克托族用完了毯子和外套。许多人在雪中光着脚艰难地走向他们的新家。

The Creek Indians refused to go. So United States soldiers came to their homes, chained them together, and marched them toward the west. Hungry, cold, and loaded down with chains, thirty-five hundred Creek Indians died before reaching the new Indian territory.

克里克印第安人拒绝离开。于是美国士兵来到他们的家，用链子把他们锁在一起，强行押送他们向西行进。饥饿、寒冷，身负锁链，三千五百名克里克印第安人在到达新的印第安领土之前就死了。

Down in Florida, the Seminole picked up weapons and went to war. It took the United States seven years to defeat the Seminole and drive them out of Florida. The seven-year fight is now known as the Second Seminole War.

在佛罗里达南部，塞米诺尔族拿起武器开始战争。美国花了七年时间才击败塞米诺尔族并将他们驱逐出佛罗里达。这场七年的战斗现在被称为第二次塞米诺尔战争。

The Cherokee Indians tried fighting in a different way. They went to court to keep their homes. Judges heard them argue that they deserved to live on their own farms. The court hearings dragged on for almost eight years.

切罗基印第安人尝试用不同的方式战斗。他们上法庭保护自己的家园。法官听取了他们的论证，认为他们应该住在自己的农场上。法庭听证会拖延了近八年。

Finally, seven hundred soldiers invaded the Cherokee lands in Georgia, broke down the doors of Cherokee cabins and plantation houses, and chased the families who lived there outside. "They were dragged from their houses," wrote a Baptist minister who had watched the invasion.

最终，七百名士兵入侵了佐治亚州的切罗基土地，破坏了切罗基小屋和种植园房屋的门，把住在那里的家庭赶到外面。"他们被从房子里拖出来，"一位目睹了入侵的浸信会牧师写道。

In June of 1838, the Cherokee were marched toward the new Indian Territory in Oklahoma, eight hundred miles away. On this long, wretched journey, they marched through drought, dying of thirst. Measles and other diseases began to spread along the long line.

在1838年6月，切罗基人被押送向800英里外俄克拉荷马州的新印第安领土。在这个漫长而悲惨的旅程中，他们在干旱中行进，渴死。麻疹和其他疾病开始在长队中传播。

It took the Cherokee nation a year to walk to Oklahoma. One out of every four Cherokee died on the journey. The Cherokee called their journey nunna-daul-tsun-yi, or "The road where we cried." Today, this journey is called the Trail of Tears.

切罗基民族花了一年时间步行到俄克拉荷马。每四个切罗基人中就有一个在旅程中死去。切罗基人称他们的旅程为nunna-daul-tsun-yi，或"我们哭泣的路"。今天，这个旅程被称为眼泪之路。

[原书插图：一位切罗基印第安人的画像]

Nat Turner's Revolt / 纳特·特纳的起义

The Seminole Indians weren't the only Americans to rebel against their own countrymen. In the southern states of America, slaves worked from early until late on plantations.

塞米诺尔印第安人不是唯一反叛自己同胞的美国人。在美国南部各州，奴隶在种植园从早到晚地工作。

They had little food, no beds, no rest. They were whipped if they disobeyed their overseers. Their brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers might be sold at any time and taken away, never to be seen again.

他们几乎没有食物，没有床铺，没有休息。如果他们不服从监工就会被鞭打。他们的兄弟、姐妹、父亲和母亲可能随时被卖掉并带走，再也见不到了。

When the slaves on the island of Saint Domingue revolted and killed their masters, plantation owners in the south shuddered with fear. What if their own slaves got ideas about freedom—and banded together in rebellion?

当圣多明各岛上的奴隶起义并杀死他们的主人时，南方的种植园主因恐惧而颤抖。如果他们自己的奴隶对自由有了想法——并联合起来反叛怎么办？

One of these black ministers was a slave named Nat Turner. For as long as he could remember, Nat Turner had worked on a Virginia plantation. But he also believed that he had been called by God to lead other slaves to freedom. His owner, Thomas Moore, let Nat Turner travel around to nearby villages and preach to other slaves.

这些黑人牧师中的一个是名叫纳特·特纳的奴隶。在他能记事的时候起，纳特·特纳就在弗吉尼亚的一个种植园工作。但他也相信自己被上帝召唤来引导其他奴隶获得自由。他的主人托马斯·摩尔让纳特·特纳到附近的村庄向其他奴隶传教。

In February of 1831, Nat Turner was mending a fence. The pale February sun shone down on his hands as he bent and twisted wire back into place. He looked over his shoulder. The sun was fading from sight. A little at a time, a black circle moved across it. Soon, the whole farm was plunged into an eerie greenish darkness. The moon had moved between the sun and the earth in a solar eclipse.

在1831年2月，纳特·特纳正在修理栅栏。苍白的二月阳光照在他弯腰扭铁丝的手上。他回头看了看。太阳正在消失。一点一点地，一个黑圆圈移过太阳。很快，整个农场陷入了一种诡异的绿色黑暗中。月亮在日食中移到了太阳和地球之间。

Late on the night of Sunday, August 21st, 1831, Nat Turner met Hercules and five other slave leaders at a pond. "It is necessary that all the whites we meet die," he told his lieutenants. "Ours is not a war for robbery. It is a struggle for freedom. Spare no one."

在1831年8月21日星期日的深夜，纳特·特纳在一个池塘边与赫拉克勒斯和其他五名奴隶领袖会面。"我们遇到的所有白人都必须死，"他告诉他的副手们。"我们这不是为了抢劫的战争。这是为自由的斗争。不要放过任何人。"

By ten o'clock the next morning, Nat Turner's army had forty men in it, all waving axes or guns. By noon, the whole county was in a panic. More than fifty whites lay dead! White men were yelling for their guns. Church bells rang.

到第二天上午十点，纳特·特纳的军队有四十个人，都挥舞着斧头或枪支。到中午，整个县都陷入了恐慌。超过五十名白人死亡！白人男子呼喊着要他们的枪。教堂的钟声响起。

Before Turner could get them into the town, an armed band of slaveholders came riding up behind him. In the gunfire, Turner and his men fled into the woods and hid. Turner hoped that the next morning he would be able to reassemble his army. But his men were too scattered. One by one, they were captured.

在特纳能把他们带进城之前，一群武装的奴隶主从后面骑马追上来。在枪战中，特纳和他的手下逃进了树林并躲藏起来。特纳希望第二天早上能重新集结他的军队。但他的手下太分散了。他们一个接一个地被抓获。

For two months, Nat Turner remained free. He was living in the swamps nearby, finding food in the woods, hoping that somehow he could again raise an army and fight for freedom. But a white farmer out hunting stumbled across Turner one morning as he crawled out of the ditch where he had been sleeping.

两个月来，纳特·特纳保持自由。他住在附近的沼泽里，在树林中寻找食物，希望能够再次组建军队为自由而战。但一个外出打猎的白人农夫在一个早晨偶然发现了特纳，当时他正从睡觉的沟里爬出来。

Two weeks later, Nat Turner was hanged. His rebellion hadn't freed the slaves. Instead, they were worse off than ever! Their owners were terrified of another revolt. Laws were passed keeping slaves from meeting together in groups of more than three.

两周后，纳特·特纳被绞死。他的反叛没有解放奴隶。相反，他们比以前更糟糕！他们的主人害怕另一次起义。法律规定奴隶不得三人以上聚会。

📚 Chapter Vocabulary / 本章词汇表

历史专业词汇 / Historical Terms

treaty

/ˈtriːti/

中文：条约
定义：国家或团体之间的正式协议
例句：The Native Americans signed a treaty to sell their land.

plantation

/plænˈteɪʃən/

中文：种植园
定义：大型农业庄园，通常使用奴隶劳动
例句：Slaves worked on cotton plantations in the South.

rebellion

/rɪˈbeljən/

中文：反叛，起义
定义：反抗权威或政府的行为
例句：Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Virginia.

Trail of Tears

/treɪl ʌv tɪrz/

中文：眼泪之路
定义：1838年切罗基人被强制迁移的历史事件
例句：The Trail of Tears was a tragic chapter in American history.

基础生活词汇 / Basic Life Vocabulary

settle

/ˈsetl/

中文：定居
定义：在某地建立永久居住地
例句：The Boers settled in southern Africa.

houses

/ˈhaʊzɪz/

中文：房屋
定义：人们居住的建筑物
例句：Cherokee Indians lived in log houses.

food

/fuːd/

中文：食物
定义：营养物质，人们吃的东西
例句：Slaves had very little food to eat.

children

/ˈtʃɪldrən/

中文：孩子们
定义：年幼的人
例句：Cherokee children went to schools run by missionaries.

动作行为词汇 / Actions & Activities

fight

/faɪt/

中文：战斗，对抗
定义：进行斗争或战争
例句：The Cherokee tried to fight for their land.

build

/bɪld/

中文：建造
定义：构建或建设某物
例句：Settlers wanted to build houses on Native American land.

journey

/ˈdʒɜːrni/

中文：旅程
定义：从一个地方到另一个地方的行程
例句：The Cherokee's journey to Oklahoma was very difficult.

rebel

/rɪˈbel/

中文：反叛
定义：反抗权威
例句：Nat Turner decided to rebel against slavery.

政治社会词汇 / Political & Social Terms

government

/ˈɡʌvərnmənt/

中文：政府
定义：国家的管理机构
例句：The American government had a different approach.

freedom

/ˈfriːdəm/

中文：自由
定义：不受束缚或控制的状态
例句：Slaves dreamed of freedom from bondage.

slaves

/sleɪvz/

中文：奴隶
定义：被强制劳动的人
例句：Slaves worked from dawn to dusk on plantations.

law

/lɔː/

中文：法律
定义：政府制定的规则
例句：President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law.

📊 处理统计信息 / Processing Statistics

📄 总段落数 / Total Paragraphs: 26
🔤 标注词汇数 / Highlighted Words: 68
📝 词汇表条目 / Vocabulary Entries: 16
🎯 词汇类别 / Categories: 4
📊 平均每段标注词汇 / Average Words per Paragraph: 2.6
✅ 双语对照完成度 / Bilingual Coverage: 100%
🔊 发音功能 / Pronunciation Feature: 已启用 / Enabled
📱 响应式设计 / Responsive Design: 已优化 / Optimized