Volume 6 • Issue 2 • 2025 • Special Issue: Imperialism, Racism, and Slavery in the Modern Period

The topic of this special issue is the manner in which Early Modern philosophers engaged with the most pressing moral issue of their era: the Transatlantic slave trade.

Despite the volume of literature produced by Early Modern philosophers about this issue, both in defense of it and in opposition to it, many historians of philosophy have not reckoned with how the motives, ideology, violence, and commerce of the Transatlantic slave trade influenced every aspect of the philosophy that was written in that era. As editors of this special issue, we aim to illustrate how Early Modern conversations at large—about politics, money, human nature, and justice—are informed by the ongoing business of enslavement. We aim to give our readers a firm foothold in these conversations and allow them to reach even more informed assessments and evaluations of these arguments within their sociohistorical context.

The papers in this special issue were presented and workshopped at Boston University in October 2023 and funded by the Benedict Lecture series, the Boston University Center for the Humanities, and the Boston University Philosophy Department. We are grateful to the participants and audience for their interest in this topic and their original contributions to this inquiry. We also thank the Wellesley College Faculty Research and Awards Committee for their financial support to publish this special issue.

John Harfouch, The University of Alabama in Huntsville

Julie Walsh, Wellesley College

Editors: John Harfouch (Guest Editor), Julie Walsh (Guest Editor)