by Derek Allison

Created on: August 30, 2008

By the end of the eighteenth century, criticism of the slave trade was growing throughout Europe and North America and the question of abolition became a central theme in public and intellectual debate (Black, 2002, p.53). Denunciations of the trade appeared in the literature of many Enlightenment philosophers and scholars (Black, 1999, p.406).

In 1775, the English intellectual Thomas Paine (1737-1809) published his article African Slavery in America in The Pennsylvania Magazine in which he launches a polemic against the institution of slavery and advocates its abolishment and the emancipation of Negro slaves.

Paine stresses that all peoples have a "natural" and "perfect" right of freedom (Paine, 1775, p.647). He states that the theft and enslavement of countless Africans by means of "violence and murder" is more "lamentable than strange" (Paine, 1775, p.645). What he does find surprising, however, is that supposedly Christian and civilised people should tolerate and participate in such a "savage practice", despite it being convincingly shown to be "contrary to the light of nature" and opposed to "every principle of justice and humanity" (Paine, 1775, pp.645-646). For Paine, human beings are an "unnatural commodity" and the methods by which people are enslaved are "wicked and inhuman" (Paine, 1775, p.646). Slaves are kept in "monstrous" conditions and suffer "barbaric" treatment (Paine, 1775, p.647). Those who participate in the slave trade must understand the evil of their industry but seem to have sacrificed their reason, conscience and integrity (Paine, 1775, p.646). Paine suggests that the only way to convince Europeans of the injustice of slavery would be to allow Negroes to enslave white people (Paine, 1775, p.647).

Paine argues that there are no legal or moral justifications for slavery (Paine, 1775, p.646). To those who look to the precedents of ancient Greece and Rome to justify modern slavery, Paine argues that only "heathen nations" captured and enslaved innocent people who had not injured or threatened them (Paine, 1775, p.647). Paine finds "most shocking" the attempts of many to justify slavery on the basis that is allowed by the Bible (Paine, 1775, p.646). For Paine, the Scriptures cannot be "so contrary to the plain dictates of natural light and conscience in a matter of common justice and humanity" (Paine, 1775, p.647). According to Paine, slavery contradicts the Christian teachings regarding the treatment of our fellow men; such a "wicked practice"

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