Rights theory arose in slave-trading states and could justify slavery

Evidence

It was no accident that the beginnings of modern rights theories are to be found in Portugal and the Netherlands, the main centers of the slave trade at that time. Thus according to the Portuguese theologian Molina, liberty as property could be traded. Man was pictured as a free being, capable of making his own economic and moral decisions, and of being bound by their consequences. Paradoxically, this picture of the individual as sovereign could be made to yield a defense of slavery and of absolutism. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 634 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It was no accident that the beginnings of modern rights theories are to be found in Portugal and the Netherlands, the main centers of the slave trade at that time. Thus according to the Portuguese theologian Molina, liberty as property could be traded. Man was pictured as a free being, capable of making his own economic and moral decisions, and of being bound by their consequences. Paradoxically, this picture of the individual as sovereign could be made to yield a defense of slavery and of absolutism. Similarly, Grotius’s famous desire for peace was articulated through his rights theory: in the state of nature, man possessed active rights and the moral capacity to enter freely into contracts with others regarding his property. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 634 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Segregationist legislation was justified in the language of property rights and liberty — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1468; Qualified versus unqualified equality language steered states toward or against slavery. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 9; Modern rights theory arose in the centers of the slave trade — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 634 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern rights theory arose in the centers of the slave trade #corroborates (0.98) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 634
• Early rights theory arose in the slave-trading states and defended slavery. #corroborates (0.98) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 634
• Some slaves demanded liberty by citing the Rights of Man. #complicates (0.78)
• Locke justified colonial expropriation via labor theory, not natural racial inferiority #complicates (0.74) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 28