Race and the Scottish Enlightenment

Lisa Williams will address how thinkers in the Scottish Enlightenment contributed to ideas of race and racial hierarchies. Ideas of race influenced the debates by Enlightenment thinkers concerning slavery and colonialism and lofty philosophical ideals of liberty and equality were often limited in their application. Enlightenment scholars of African descent were able to use these principles to critique the morality of chattel slavery and fight for the liberty of ‘free coloureds’ and enslaved Africans in the West Indies.

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