“ Jurists, who have gravely determined that the child of a slave comes into the world a slave, have decided, in other words, that a man shall come into the world not a man. ”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men (1755). copy citation
| Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
|---|---|
| Source | Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men |
| Topic | words world |
| Date | 1755 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by G. D. H. Cole |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Discourse_on_the_Origin_of_Inequality_Amo... |
Context
“But, even if we could transfer our liberty, as we do our property, there would be a great difference with regard to the children, who enjoy the father's substance only by the transmission of his right; whereas, liberty being a gift which they hold from nature as being men, their parents have no right whatever to deprive them of it. As then, to establish slavery, it was necessary to do violence to nature, so, in order to perpetuate such a right, nature would have to be changed. Jurists, who have gravely determined that the child of a slave comes into the world a slave, have decided, in other words, that a man shall come into the world not a man. I regard it then as certain, that government did not begin with arbitrary power, but that this is the depravation, the extreme term, of government, and brings it back, finally, to just the law of the strongest, which it was originally designed to remedy.”
source
