Description
Millions of Africans were enslaved and transported to the Americas in the eighteenth century. Europeans--many of whom viewed themselves as enlightened--endorsed, funded, legislated, and executed the slave trade. This atrocity had a profound impact on philosophy, but historians of the discipline have so far neglected to address the topics of slavery and race. Many authors--including enslaved and formerly enslaved Black authors--used philosophical ideas to advocate for abolition, analyze racist attitudes, and critique racial bias. Other authors attempted to justify the transatlantic slave trade by advancing philosophical defenses of racial chattel slavery.Slavery and Race: Philosophical Debates in the Eighteenth Century explores these philosophical ideas and arguments, with a focus on the role race played in discussions of slavery. In doing so, author Julia Jorati reveals how closely associated Blackness and slavery were at that time and how many White people viewed Black people as naturally destined for slavery. In addition to examining well-known authors like David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jorati also discusses less widely studied philosophers like Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, Lemuel Haynes, and Olympe de Gouges. By revealing important aspects of debates about slavery in North America and Europe, this book and its companion volume on the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries are valuable resources for readers interested in a more complete history of early modern philosophy.
Table of Contents
Series editors' forewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. North American debates about slavery and race1.1 Equal natural rights1.2 The Golden Rule and imaginary role reversal1.3 Souls, salvation, and slavery1.4 Natural capacities, equality, and slavery1.5 The nature, origins, and effects of racial bias2. Scottish debates about slavery and race2.1 Gershom Carmichael2.2 Francis Hutcheson2.3 David Hume2.4 George Wallace2.5 Adam Ferguson2.6 James Beattie2.7 James Dunbar2.8 James Ramsay3. English debates about slavery and race3.1 Edward Trelawny3.2 Thomas Rutherforth3.3 Two Dialogues on the Man-Trade3.4 Thomas Clarkson3.5 Dorothy Kilner3.6 Quobna Ottobah Cugoano3.7 Olaudah Equiano3.8 Mary Wollstonecraft4. Francophone debates about slavery and race4.1 Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu4.2 Jean-Jacques Rousseau4.3 Voltaire4.4 Diderot's and D'Alembert's Encyclopedia4.5 Guillaume-Thomas Raynal, Denis Diderot, Jean-Joseph de Pechméja, and the History of the Two Indies4.6 Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet4.7 Olympe de Gouges5. Dutch and German debates about slavery and race5.1 Jacobus Elisa Johannes Capitein5.2 Immanuel KantBibliographyIndex
