Conclusion

The creation of an ideal of power and punishment moves in the end away from ideas of popular consent and the relinquishment of rights for a common good. Instead, the ideal is only the prevention of the state of war and maintaining order and stability. In this way, the arguments Locke and Hume are able to co-exist. Additionally, the analysis of Jamaican slave courts helps provide an empirical understanding of the creation of order. The slave owners use the courts as a way to enforce their control over power while at the same time creating deterrents for power challenges by the slaves. But the slave courts, along with the account of the old woman's execution, illustrate that the ideals of power and punishment, and with it the equality of man, do not necessarily exist in history. This examination of Britain in the eighteenth century has revealed that class stratification and popular opinion have as much or more to do with the shaping of power as do agreements between men in the state of nature.

The End