Uniquely positioned at a crossroads in American history, Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" attempted to capture the essence of American culture and values. Though a supporter of colonialism, Tocqueville could clearly perceive the evils that black people and natives had been subjected to in the United States. Tocqueville devoted the last chapter of the first volume of "Democracy in America" to the question while his travel companion Gustave de Beaumont wholly focused on slavery and its fallouts for the American nation in "Marie or Slavery in America". Tocqueville notes among the American races: