The Agony of Asar: A Thesis on Slavery by the Former Slave, Jacobus Elisa Johannes Capitein, 1717-1747 - Softcover

J. E. J. Capitein

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558761268 ISBN 13: 9781558761261

Publisher: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1999

Synopsis

This is the first dissertation written by an African slave. He was brought to Holland by his owner, freed, and educated at the University of Leiden with grants from wealthy burghers. Thereafter he returned to Guinea as a missionary. His analysis presents a sweeping intellectual genealogy of Western thought on the issue of slavery. It begins by discussing the authors of antiquity, using Seneca, Horace, and Justinian to show that slavery violated the principles of natural freedom and equality, and rebutting Aristotle's doctrine of natural slavery. Capitein concluded from Genesis that slavery entered the world as injustice to all peoples, but argued that the freedom promised in the Gospels was spiritual, not corporeal, and therefore had no civic consequences. The book represents the first scholarly work by an African on slavery, connecting Western thought and African experience.

About this title

From the Publisher:

THIS BOOK IS IN PRINT. IT IS AVALABLE ON AMAZON, IN BOOKSTORES AND DIRECTLY FROM THE PUBLISHER.

About the Author:

Grant Parker, Duke University, has written various articles on Latin literature, Roman culture and the classical tradition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Markus Wiener Publishers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1558761268
• ISBN 13: 9781558761261
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 120