The Negro Question

"A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury."

-John Stuart Mill

The Negro Question (1850) is an essay by John Stuart Mill that the author originally sent as an anonymous letter to Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country. It was written as a rebuttal to an article in support of slavery and argued for the abolition of slavery in the United States. Mill based his opposition not only on morality but also on the legal principle that certain property rights should neither be recognized nor protected.