Consent to legislation

Second Treatise of Government primary

Locke defines natural liberty as freedom from superior power on earth, explains civil freedom as life under common laws by consent, and argues slavery is an ongoing war between conqueror and captive.

OF SLAVERY. Sect. 22. THE natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule. The liberty of man, in society, is to be under no other legislative power, but that established, by consent, in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legisl…