African-British Writings in the Eighteenth Century: The Politics of Race and ReasonThe eighteenth century was a time of great cultural change in Britain. It was a period marked by expeditions to the New World, Africa, and the Orient, and these voyages were reflected in the travel literature of the era. It was also a period in which seventeenth-century empiricism and the scientific method became dominant, and in which society became increasingly secular. Fundamental to the eighteenth-century worldview was the notion of the Great Chain of Being, in which all creatures and their Creator stood in a hierarchical relationship with one another. The years from 1660 to 1833 witnessed both Britain's participation in slavery and the appropriation of the Great Chain of Being by social anthropologists and political leaders. With the rise of the slave trade, blacks were brought to Britain against their will, where they were enslaved. At the same time, intellectuals of the period tried to place these slaves within the hierarchical frame provided by the Great Chain of Being. |
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... later complain in a philosophical essay that slave holders would “ rob men of some of their property ” and would keep any property that belonged to the slave ( 113 ) . Gronniosaw gives the first evidence of suffering from a lifelong ...
... later granted permission for the baptism to take place . In February 1759 , at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster , London , Equiano was finally baptized . The clergyman gave him a book written by the Bishop of Sodor and Man entitled ...
... later adapted for the theater by Thomas Southerne in 1696 , is one of the earliest English literary works to feature a leading black character . See Aphra Behn , Oroonoko , or The Royal Slave , ed . Montague Summers ( New York : Blom ...
Contents
Enlightenment Humanism | 1 |
Perspectives on a Theological Chain | 31 |
Conclusion | 149 |
Copyright | |
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African-British Writings in the Eighteenth Century: The Politics of Race and ... Helena Woodard No preview available - 1999 |