Person Sitting in Darkness,” published in the North American Review, was an acid indictment of all the shenanigans that accompanied Western expansion: land grabs, unequal treaties, concessions, massacres, talk of “the white man’s burden” and “manifest destiny.” It raised several basic questions: Why did Americans feel compelled to “save the heathens,” especially the Chinese? Shall we “go on conferring our Civilization upon the peoples that sit in darkness,” he asked, “or shall we give those poor things a rest?”
