ENN New Voices: Ottobah Cugoano's 'Thoughts and Sentiments': Interview with Aminah Hasan-Birdwell

In this episode, Jacinta speaks with Aminah Hasan-Birdwell, Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Emory University, about 18th-century Fante-British abolitionist and philosopher Ottobah Cugoano. We focus on his essay Thoughts and Sentiments, discussing its broad-ranging and interconnected critique of slavery, law, labor, and colonization. Hasan-Birdwell considers the breadth of Cugoano’s perspective, explaining that he takes into account not only the suffering of the individual, but also the health of society, examining not just British society but the morality of nations across the globe. Hasan-Birdwell concludes the episode by offering advice to early-career scholars commencing research on similarly marginalized philosophers.

To listen to this episode, please visit our podcast page. 
 
References

Works by Cugoano
Cugoano, Olaudah Ottobah. Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery and Other Writings. Edited by Vincent Carretta. New York: Penguin, 1999.
 
Works by Hasan-Birdwell
Hasan-Birdwell, Aminah. “Ottobah Cugoano on Chattel Slavery and the Moral Limitations of Ius Gentium.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 32, no. 3 (2024): 473–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2024.2307338.

Hasan-Birdwell, Aminah. “‘That Sottish and Selfish principle': Cugoano on Self-Interest, Imagination, and Moral Wrongdoing." Journal of Modern Philosophy (forthcoming).

Other works mentioned
Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Cicero: On Moral Ends. Edited by Julia Annas. Translated by Raphael Woolf. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
 
Clarkson, Thomas. An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African. 2nd ed., considerably enlarged. London: J. Phillips, 1788.
 
Hindle, Steve. “Work, Reward and Labour Discipline in Late Seventeenth-Century England.” Chapter. In Remaking English Society: Social Relations and Social Change in Early Modern England, edited by Steve Hindle, Alexandra Shepard, and John Walter, 255–80. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2013.
 
Ramsay, James. An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies. Cambridge Library Collection – Slavery and Abolition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Tobin, James. Cursory Remarks upon the Reverend Mr. Ramsay’s Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the Sugar Colonies. By a Friend to the West India Colonies, and Their Inhabitants. London: G. and T. Wilkie, 1785.