A. Koval, PhD in History, Assistant Professor
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2018.138.5
LIBERTY AND SLAVERY AS “CIVILIZATIONAL VALUES”
Basic principles of the US Declaration of Independence (as the example of the classical liberalism implementation) and main arguments of Southern advocates of slavery of antebellum period are considered in the article. The views of John Calhoun and George Fitzhugh were analyzed. Their attempts to harmonize the institution of slavery with the very important for the American society principles of equality and liberty were examined by the author. Both of them considered slavery as the institution with civilizing properties that should prevail over the absence of liberty for African Americans. Such views were based on racism – advocates of slavery were refusing to concede the physical and intellectual equality of the enslaved African Americans and the descendants of European colonists. Fitzhugh’s main arguments for the preservation of slavery were the examples of the classical societies and states, specifically Ancient Athens and Rome, which had been reached the high level of the civilization development due to slavery. Calhoun’s and Fitzhugh’s attempts to defend the traditional social and economical mode of Southern States led them to the denial of main principles of Declaration of Independence.
Key words: liberalism, liberty, slavery, abolitionism, USA, reception of antiquity.
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