Question

What were John Locke’s attitudes towards slavery?
Correct Answer(s)
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Incorrect Answer(s)
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1. Locke compared the situation of individuals in an absolutist monarchy to enslavement.
2. Locke categorically condemned slavery.
3. Locke wrote that slavery was “vile and miserable.”
4. Locke helped establish the rules for enslavement in the English colony of Carolina.

Answer 1

Correct Answer(s)
- 1. Locke compared the situation of individuals in an absolutist monarchy to enslavement.
- 3. Locke wrote that slavery was “vile and miserable.”
- 4. Locke helped establish the rules for enslavement in the English colony of Carolina.

Incorrect Answer(s)
- 2. Locke categorically condemned slavery.

Brief justification:
- Locke famously contrasted natural liberty with absolute monarchy, likening arbitrary rule to slavery.
- In the Second Treatise he calls slavery “so vile and miserable an estate,” but this is qualified by exceptions.
- Locke did work for the Carolina proprietors and contributed to constitutional and legal frameworks that permitted slavery.
- He did not categorically condemn all slavery; he accepted exceptions (e.g., slavery of captives from a just war or as a punishment), and his practical involvement with colonial governance and investments showed ambivalence and complicity.