Matthias Christian Sprengel (1746–1803): Slavery, the American Revolution, and Historiography as Radical Enlightenment
In: The Radical Enlightenment in Germany
Author:
Chunjie Zhang
Chunjie Zhang
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Abstract
This article focuses on the German Enlightenment historian Matthias Christian Sprengel (1746–1803) and his writings on slavery and the American Revolution. While Jonathan Israel emphasizes the quintessential role that philosophy played in the establishment and development of the Radical Enlightenment, I argue that Sprengel’s method of writing history is an alternative method of spreading Radical Enlightenment ideas of democracy, religious tolerance, and abolitionism. Historical realism, as I call it, is Sprengel’s narrative strategy that, not necessarily always fact-oriented, definitely intends to imagine a society of democratic government in the time of aristocracy.