Divine servitude against the work of man: dispossessive subjects and Exoduses to and from property

The self-possessive individual of early modern colonial capitalism depended upon a limit to the self's alienability: while one could buy and sell other humans, one could not sell or enslave oneself. This essay explores how liberal political philosophers and abolitionist hermeneuts managed Bibli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religion (London. 1971) Vol. 50; no. 2; pp. 215 - 236
Main Author: Taylor, Chris
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Bergen Routledge 02.04.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Abolition of slavery
Autobiographical literature
black autobiography
Capitalism
Colonialism
Exodus
God
Liberalism
Locke
Locke, John (1632-1704)
Philosophers
Possession
Private property
Property
Religiosity
Slavery
ISSN:0048-721X, 1096-1151
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The self-possessive individual of early modern colonial capitalism depended upon a limit to the self's alienability: while one could buy and sell other humans, one could not sell or enslave oneself. This essay explores how liberal political philosophers and abolitionist hermeneuts managed Biblical sanction for voluntary enslavement (contained in Exodus 21) in order to ground and normalize liberal-capitalist institutions, such as private property and wage labor. It then shifts to an archive of black ex-slave spiritual autobiography, exploring how former slaves figured their becoming mundanely free as becoming God's possession. Refusing liberal self-possession, these once-possessed, dispossessive subjects articulate a general critique of property relations.
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ISSN:0048-721X
1096-1151
DOI:10.1080/0048721X.2020.1713515