The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery by John Harpham

John Samuel Harpham

Harvard University Press | 2005

A landmark account of the origins of American slavery, revealing how ancient Roman ideas were used to defend the establishment of a slave empire in the English Atlantic world.

From 1550 to 1700, English authors drew on classical Roman sources to articulate moral and legal justifications for slavery. John Samuel Harpham uncovers this overlooked intellectual tradition, tracing how arguments rooted in Roman law, natural rights theory, and war-time customs were adapted to defend the transatlantic slave trade.

The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery illuminates the disturbing continuity between classical political thought and modern racial slavery, providing essential context for understanding the moral reasoning that undergirded an inhumane institution.

The first volume in a three-volume series about the ideas that were associated with the origins, development, and eventual abolition of slavery in the Anglo-American Atlantic world, The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery, will be published on October 1, 2025, with Harvard University Press.