论潘恩的废奴和种族平等思想及局限性

A Study on Thomas Paine’s Abolitionism Concerning His Racial Equality Thought and Limits

作为影响世界的政治思想家,潘恩终生都是坚定的废奴主义者.他在美国任杂志编辑期间所写的两篇文章《美洲的奴隶制》《严肃的思考》以及为《解放奴隶法案》所写的《序言》,对美国废奴思想与种族平等思想的产生与发展起到了先驱性作用.针对当时英美两国普遍存在的罪恶的奴隶贸易及奴隶制,他一方面呼吁其国人停止作恶;另一方面更是从人的自然权利及理性的精神出发,坚定地支持并传播废奴主义思想.当然,受囿于特定的历史环境,潘恩思想中仍可看到白人种族优越论的影响,与现代意义的种族平等思想尚有一定距离.

As a political thinker whose influences are echoed across the modern world,Thomas Paine remains a steadfast abolitionist all his life.His early writings,including“African Slavery in America”,“A Serious Thought”and“Preamble”of Acts of Emancipation of Slaves(1780),contributes greatly to the devel-opment of abolitionism,the conception of racial equality as a seminal role.As the efforts to fight against the slave trade and slavery in the United Kingdom and the United States in the second half of the 18th century,he called on his countrymen to bring an end to the evil practices on the one hand,and supported and advocated the abolitionism on the other.However,limited by the historical context,Paine is somewhat affected by the White Superiority ideology and what he advocated is far less than the Racial Equality in its real sense of our time.