Puritanismo e escravidão : Richard Baxter, um apelo à consciência dos cristãos donos de escravizados no século XVII e sua influência sobre o abolicionismo americano no século XVIII

Abstract

This article sought to understand the particularities of the Puritan mentality in England in the 17th century, as well as its influence on the society of its time and how its writings were used by the abolitionist movements of the 18th century. For this, we used part of the Christian Directory, a work by the puritan Richard Baxter published in 1673, in which he addresses various subjects of the human being's daily life and what are the Christian responses to life. Furthermore, we used the reprint of this excerpt in a pamphlet of the abolitionist movement of Philadelphia, published in 1785 together with letters from Anthony Benezet and Abbot Raynal, together with a petition to the House of Commons of the English Parliament asking for an end to the traffic of black Africans to be sold as slaves in the Americas and Europe. We also reflect on the variations in the use of the same document, which depending on the time and context of each society, can be used in different ways even though its content does not change.