Opgave:
Undersøg hvordan oplysningstænkere så på sorte/slavegjorte (kilde 3.1 og 3.2).
Eksempel på problemstillinger til kilderne 3.1 + 3.2 + 3.3 (klik på pilen):
Forklar kort hvilke politiske, økonomiske og ideologiske forudsætninger der var for dannelsen af nationalforsamlingen i 1789. Hvilke klager og krav havde forskellige dele af 3. standen op til revolutionen i 1789?
Introduktion til kilde 3.2: Denis Diderot - Slavehandel (1772)
Forfatteren og filosoffen Denis Diderot (1713-1784) er en af de mest anerkendte oplysningsfilosoffer. Han var redaktør på opslagsværket Den Store Franske Encyklopædi, der blev skrevet mellem 1751-1772. Det ambitiøse mål var at samle al verdens kundskab i én bog. Artiklerne i bogen havde mange bidragsydere. I dette uddrag er teksten under begrebet: Slavehandel.
Kort version:
The Slave Trade (Commerce of Africa) is the buying of unfortunate Negroes by Europeans on the coast of Africa to use as slaves in their colonies. This buying of Negroes, to reduce them to slavery, is one business that violates religion, morality, natural laws, and all the rights of human nature. Negroes, says a modern Englishman full of enlightenment and humanity, have not become slaves by the right of war; neither do they deliver themselves voluntarily into bondage, and consequently their children are not born slaves. Nobody is unaware that they are bought from their own princes, who claim to have the right to dispose of their liberty, and that traders have them transported in the same way as their other goods, either in their colonies or in America, where they are displayed for sale. If commerce of this kind can be justified by a moral principle, there is no crime, however atrocious it may be, that cannot be made legitimate. Kings princes, and magistrates are not the proprietors of their subjects: they do not, therefore, have the right to dispose of their liberty and to sell them as slaves (...)
Kilde: Diderot, D., & d’Alambert, R. (2014). Den franske encyklopædi. Forlaget Klim. S. 258-260.
Lang version:
The Slave Trade (Commerce of Africa) is the buying of unfortunate Negroes by Europeans on the coast of Africa to use as slaves in their colonies. This buying of Negroes, to reduce them to slavery, is one business that violates religion, morality, natural laws, and all the rights of human nature. Negroes, says a modern Englishman full of enlightenment and humanity, have not become slaves by the right of war; neither do they deliver themselves voluntarily into bondage, and consequently their children are not born slaves. Nobody is unaware that they are bought from their own princes, who claim to have the right to dispose of their liberty, and that traders have them transported in the same way as their other goods, either in their colonies or in America, where they are displayed for sale. If commerce of this kind can be justified by a moral principle, there is no crime, however atrocious it may be, that cannot be made legitimate. Kings princes, and magistrates are not the proprietors of their subjects: they do not, therefore, have the right to dispose of their liberty and to sell them as slaves.
On the other hand, no man has the right to buy them or to make himself their master. Men and their liberty are not objects of commerce; they can be neither sold nor bought nor paid for at any price. We must conclude from this that a man whose slave has run away should only blame himself, since he had acquired for money illicit goods whose acquisition is prohibited by all the laws of humanity and equality. There is not, therefore, a single one of these unfortunate people regarded only as slaves who does not have the right to be declared free, since he has never lost his freedom, which he could not lose and which his prince, his father, and any person whatsoever in the world had not the power to dispose of. Consequently the sale that has been completed is invalid in itself. This Negro does not divest himself and can never divest himself of his natural right; he carries it everywhere with him, and he can demand everywhere that he be allowed to enjoy it. It is, therefore, patent inhumanity on the part of judges in free countries where he is transported, not to emancipate him immediately by declaring him free, since he is their fellow man, having a soul like them.
Kilde: Diderot, D., & d’Alambert, R. (2014). Den franske encyklopædi. Forlaget Klim. S. 258-260.