“The real antithesis of slavery is not freedom but equality”
David Brion Davis is one of the foremost historians of the twentieth century. The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation is the third book of a prizewinning trilogy on slavery in Western culture. In his previous works Davis concluded that the real antithesis of slavery is not freedom but equality.
“Moral progress seems to be historical, cultural, and institutional, not the result of a genetic improvement in human nature ”
In The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation he brings appropriate attention and analysis to the Haitian Revolution, the colonization project, and the abolition movement. Davis presents the age of emancipation as a model for reform and as probably the greatest landmark of willed moral progress in human history. Using emancipation as a model he concludes that moral progress seems to be historical, cultural, and institutional, not the result of a genetic improvement in human nature.
