John Locke's Legitimacy of Slavery

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Most People around America find slavery to be completely wrong and feel that it should never be used. Ever since Native Americans inhabited America, slavery has been practiced and used. Locke states, that slavery is legitimate when the slave agrees to be under rule, if the man has committed a crime he should be put into slavery, and if an aggressor in war loses, the aggressor should be under rule of the defender that he attacked. In the opinion of John Locke as presented in his Second Treatise of Government, slavery is only legitimate or right when the man under slavery agrees to it or has committed a wrongdoing, act of war. In the opinion of Locke, if a man is under the power of law or rule, it should only be through his own consent or permission. In John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, Locke describes man as a person who strives to be free from any superior power. The liberty of man in life is to be under no power, unless the man gives permission to be under rule. Locke states, “The liberty of man in society is to be under no other legislative power but that established by consent in the commonwealth; not under the dominion of nay will or restraint of any law, but what the legislative shall enact according to the trust put in it” (11). Here, Locke is describing that man’s liberty in life is that man is not and does not have to be under any kind of rule, except that to which he gives permission. Locke is also describing that when a man consents to being ruled, the rules to which the man and the government or ruler have agreed, cannot be changed or tweaked. “When he does consent to be governed, the laws cannot go beyond what the trust placed within the government warrants.” John Locke believes that slavery can be legitimate, when the man under a rule consents to it or agrees to being ruled. When a man has committed a crime against someone or something
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