About this episode

Yascha Mounk and John Harpham discuss the intellectual origins of American slavery and the early justifications for the practice.

Yascha Mounk and John Harpham examine how early modern thinkers justified slavery long before modern theories of race took hold. John Samuel Harpham is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Letters and Wick Cary Assistant Professor at the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery.  In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and John Harpham discuss why the standard racial account of slavery’s origins misses the earliest justifications for the practice, how Aristotelian and Roman conceptions of freedom and slavery shaped the intellectual world of the first English colonists, and what this history means for our understanding of slavery today. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠⁠this link on your phone⁠⁠. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠Yascha Mounk⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Persuasion⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…

People in this episode

Host: Yascha Mounk

Guest: John Harpham

Topics covered

• intellectual history
• slavery
• early modern thinkers
• justifications for slavery
• Aristotelian concepts
• Roman concepts
• colonial history

Keywords

• American slavery
• intellectual origins
• justifications
• race
• Aristotle
• Roman slavery
• English colonists

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Oklahoma

Books & works: The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery

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