How Did Slavery Become Morally Acceptable? | John Harpham and Javier Mejia

How did one of history's greatest moral crimes come to be seen as legitimate? In this episode, I speak with historian John Samuel Harpham about his remarkable new book The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery. Rather than focusing on plantations or nineteenth-century defenses of slavery, Harpham takes us back to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England to uncover the ideas that made slavery thinkable long before it became central to the American economy. We discuss: • Why an intellectual history of slavery matters • Roman law and the rejection of Aristotle's theory of natural slavery • The paradox of English liberty and the rise of the slave trade • How seventeenth-century English writers viewed Africa • Whether racism preceded slavery—or developed alongside it • What this history tells us about moral blind spots in every society Whether you're interested in American history, political thought, intellectual history, or the history of ideas, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on one of the defining institutions of the modern world. John Samuel Harpham is the author of The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery: English Ideas in the Early Modern Atlantic World. If you enjoy conversations on history, economics, political theory, and the history of ideas, consider subscribing to the channel. Twitter (X):   / javiermejiac   Instagram:   / javier_mejia_c   LinkedIn:   / javier-mejia-cubillos-64504562   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3WqEZXa... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...