Creating a Paradox
Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and the Slave Trade's Violation of the Principles of Christianity, Reason, and Property Ownership
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9325871 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeffrey Gunn (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 629-656 |
| Publication date | 2010-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of world history (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1045-6007 • E-ISSN: 1527-8050 |
| Publisher | World History Association (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jwh.2010.a413986 |
| OpenAlex | W1604916388 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 23 |
In his groundbreaking narrative Thoughts and Sentiments (1787), Ottobah Cugoano expressed the paradox created by the slave trade that threatened to undermine the social fabric of European slaveholding societies. The commercial procedures involved in the slave trade violated the principles of Christianity, reason, and property ownership, while generating profits for European businesses and governments. The author argues that Cugoano's case for ending the slave trade and abolishing slavery depended on his ability to analyze the slave trade from the vantage points of Christianity, reason, and property ownership in order to counter apologist arguments that supported the slave trade by denying the humanity of Africans. Cugoano forced his European readership into a paradoxical predicament. They could either end the slave trade and actualize their religious, philosophical, and economic principles, or they could allow the slave trade to continue to undermine those principles, thus rendering European societies hypocritical
Capitalism · Christianity · Economics · Epistemology · Humanity · Intellectual property · Law and economics · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Property (philosophy · Sociology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society · Religious studies
Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1680
Staying power
The Atlantic slave trade and British abolition, 1760-1810
Looking at Slavery from Broader Perspectives
James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, from A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, An African Prince, as related by Himself [1770]
The History of Jamaica
An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies
An Enquiry Concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties and Literature of Negroes
British Identities before Nationalism
Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800
The Black Presence. A Documentary History of the Negro in England
Olaudah Equiano, Accidental Tourist
Measuring the Moment
The Black Voice in Eighteenth-Century Britain
The Slave’s Narrative
British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility
The Curse of Ham
Pan-African History
Black Personalities in the Era of the Slave Trade
"Far from "Gambia's Golden Shore
France and the Atlantic Revolution of the Eighteenth Century, 1770-1799
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,47 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2024 (14) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |