Locke on Slavery

While working through Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, I was uncertain regarding his attitude towards slavery. If Locke’s ideas set forth in this treatise were so central to American government, how would the founding fathers justify slavery under this system that recognizes ownership of property and natural liberty?

Locke clearly states at the beginning of “Of Slavery”: “The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule” (17). Noticing definite words like “any” and “only” makes me think that this possession of natural liberty is completely unconditional. Slavery is an obvious violation of these rights, so I don’t see how Locke could endorse it.

Further in the chapter, though, he states that that a state of war between slave and master will cease if “once compact enter between them, and make an agreement for a limited power on the one side, and obedience on the other” (17). If this agreement is made, the relationship doesn’t seem to be problematic anymore. Also in the chapter “Of Political of Civil Society”, Locke justifies slavery by defining slaves as “captives taken in a just war, (who) are by the right of nature subjected to the absolute dominion and arbitrary power of their masters” (45). It is hard to argue with something being the "right of nature"; it feels indisputable. It seems here that their state as slaves is part of their nature: an unalienable characteristic that has come about as a result of their agreement with their masters.

It is difficult to reconcile the state of slavery with Locke’s ideas of natural liberty. Also, his definition of property that entitled the laborer to the product of his or her labors is fundamentally inconsistent with slavery. The only way slavery can exist within Locke’s world is if we interpret these slaves as property of a master rather than humans with natural liberty—they have forfeited their natural reason in this contract with their master. Undoubtedly, this is the attitude early America took when forming the country.