The End of Abolition & the Return of Slavery: A Mild Rebuke

Abstract

Was abolition, the motive force for the world-wide ending of slavery, only a product of two spirited ideas: fervent Christianity & Enlightenment reason? To be blunt, was abolition the product of fanatical, progressive Christianity and fanatical, progressive deism? Will abolition cease with the end of these Enlightenment-era creeds? Throughout human history, societies practiced various forms of enslavement. Then, quite suddenly, the European societies and states that arose from the culture of the Enlightenment moved to abolish those practices around the world. Their reasons were deeply enmeshed in revealed religion and deistic philosophy. Yet, postmodernism and technocratic positivism have overwhelmed the older ideologies of faded modernity. Furthermore, neither postmodernism nor positivism are opposed to slavery in itself. Postmodernism elevates the human will to such heights that it cannot help but admire the individual who can impose a self-will over others. Positivism simply demotes human freedom. With the rise of ideologies antithetical to the free will of human beings (such as positivism) and the objective value of human beings (such as postmodernity), is it any surprise we see a concomitant rise in human trafficking – the contemporary form of slave-trade? Indeed, it is the rise of postmodernism and technocratic positivism which undergird the new forms of slavery after the end of abolition.