Week 2 – Empire & Property
All men in society were born with the right to own property for their preservation in the society and thus according to the nature of God granted all individuals the right to eat and drink all the things that they found in nature.
The entire world was given to man during creation for his posterity in common and thus making it impossible for one man to heir the entire world in common monarch. The entire world was given to men in common so that they would use it for their convenience in life[1]. Everything that the world produced was to be used by all men in common and thus no one was to dominate over the rest of the people in the society. Domination was not facilitated to enhance complete ownership of property in the society as it is experienced today since some part of the property was owned by the entire community and not any one individual.
The world was expected to remain compact to provide for all the commoners and thus no one had the right to appropriate to himself with what belonged to the commoners without their consent. Different people in the society had different status yet everyone had the right to own his property in person according to the natural laws that preserved the common property. God distributed property to each man equally and thus nothing was created for misuse in the society and the property that was beyond the desired share was to be left for others in the society
Week 5 – Slavery & The Slave Trade
Slavery was a common feature experienced during the ancient societies where different people were captured in war to provide free labor and were under the authority of the colonial masters who had rights to own slaves. The slaves were used in the development of the southern economy to provide labor on the tobacco, cotton and rice plantations and thus the slaves were key in the development of the colonies. Slavery was viewed as a viable institution economically since the slaves had a higher rate of output on the plantations due to the provision of free labor and slavery was rationalized due to its economic contribution.
Most Africans arrived in the British Empire as slaves during the 18th century and faced similar treatment in the plantations. The black slaves experienced various forms of treatment depending on the nature of population growth in the region, the material well-being and the patterns of interaction between the whites and the black slaves in the region[2]. The experiences of Africans in the British region were different, and though most of the people arrived in the region as slaves, they settled in different regions in Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Anguilla along the seaport and the Caribbean regions. During the American Revolution, many of the African slaves lived in the mainland as compared to those living on the islands.
The experience of slaves in North America was worse than those in the Caribbean region where the slaves were found in New England Farms as well as tobacco plantations in Virginia. The region of Nova Scotia experienced freedom, unlike the bondage that existed in rice plantations in South Carolina regions. The population of the black slaves lived in forts and different factories that were controlled by the British forces. The slaves in the Caribbean region were used for the cultivation of sugar which was the main slave crop along the region and thus comprised of the highest rate of slave laborers who were involved in cultivation activities along the Caribbean.
Week 6 – The Abolition of the Slave Trade
Slavery was experienced in many societies in the ancient times across the globe comprising of individuals who were held in captivity during the war, and thus it was legalized according to the British Constitution that valued the buying and selling of slaves along the region. In 1776, the slave trade was abolished under the constitution of Virginia and granted equal rights to all men in the region since by nature all men were equal and therefore was against Locke's original meaning. The rise of Christianity was also against slavery since all people were seen as equal before God and seeking to abolish all the social differences that existed in the society. The new evangelical policies in the church of England were seeking to abolish slavery in different colonies by conducting large gatherings that were directed towards the rights of the poor and oppressed in the society.
The counter-revolutionary war of 1708-1807 between the Americans and the British led to abolishing of the slave trade and led to the decline of the slave trade. The Anglo-American abolition also led to the abolition of the slave trade since it adjudicated for the equal rights of all individuals and led to abolishing of the Atlantic slave trade. The mobilization sentiments led to the abolition of the slave trade during the time of Christopher Brown popular support. The second wave of mobilization favored the expansion of the public sphere and thus facilitated the motion to abolish the slave trade in west indies. The London committee of 1791 also facilitated the abolitionist strategy to end slavery.
Week 7 – Religion & Liberalism
Rammohun was a reformer who focused on the campaign for reforms in Western education and religious reforms using the power of the press to seek the public opinion in Britain and Bengal[3]. The religious developments established by Rammohun led to universal Theism that was a combination of ideas from the radical Christians, Hindu Vedanta and the rationalist Islamic. The Church of England was established as a state church for the dissenters, and thus Rammohun visited Britain to increase the agitation seeking the freedom of the dissenters, Jews, and the Catholics. The church during this time comprised of small parishes since only half of the population attended the Church of England as early as 1851. The colonial authorities reefed to the missionaries as the cultural imperialist, but the through learning of the local language attempted to facilitate the heathen religions[4].
The first missionaries who were accepted in India were born in England but converted to the Indian language and facilitated the translation of the Bible in the Indian region
The Unitarians were the most common religious group in London, and thus Rammohun was adopted into the universal Monotheism religion[5]. The majority of Indians were Hindus who were closer to Monotheism, and thus Roy was the father of the Indian religion and explicitly a liberal Hinduism who was seeking to protect the rights of women and the poor who were on the lower castes.
Week 13 – Gandhi
Gandhi was a unique spiritual figure to the western liberals who could divide between the religion and the caste. Gandhi headed the nationalist movement in India with an ideology of constitutionalism-based politics and thus would articulate the existing cultural differences and the colonial rule. Gandhi coordinated his campaigns during the period of the extremist policies that focused on challenging the dominance of the extremist and coordinate the crackdown on the ruthless government. The nationalist seeks on responding to backwardness in the society and thus focus on the need to enhance the social reforms in the society.
The challenges that a person with Gandhi ambition suffers is the lack of ideological discourse that would allow the reformation of the society without allowing the impacts of the modern colonial state that would infringe on the civilization process in the Indian society[6].The main role of Gandhi was to tackle the ideology of constitutional political field and enhance an open field of political participation.
Gandhi was a key figure that was identified by the west states and facilitated the post-independence in India and thus a key figure in the history of India who took all moral grounds to combat the legacy of British in India. He was a religious guru who rejected Christianity since he had a mixture of the customs of Hindus and the European ideas.