Kant, the Political Economy of Colonial Slavery, and Racial Capitalism

Abstract

Colonial slavery supercharged Europe’s prosperity in the eighteenth century. It was legally sanctioned, supported by state powers, and largely condoned by the public. Against this backdrop, Kant observed that “Negro slaves” functioned as money in trade, their number measured a nation’s wealth, and the slavery business was therefore intertwined with a competitive intra-European politics. Meanwhile, he racialized the “Negro” as uniquely suited for slave labor, indirectly benefited from such labor, refrained from calling colonial slavery an unjust institution, and occasionally signaled anti-abolitionist sympathies. Given these facts, what is the prospect of a deracialized, radical Kantian liberalism?