Abstract
This article critically revisits John Locke’s concept of the liberal subject by examining its en-
tanglement with voluntary action, property, and colonial domination. Situating Locke’s political
thought within the dual context of 17th-century resistance to absolutist authority and colonial
expansion, Jürgen Martschukat argues that the Lockean subject was shaped through and le-
gitimized by systems of unfree labor, land appropriation, and racialized hierarchies. Drawing on
Locke’s theoretical writings and his active role in the colonization of Carolina, he shows how
voluntariness was both a principle of freedom and a mechanism of domination. Rather than
viewing exclusion and exploitation as contradictions of liberalism, Martschukat reveals their
structural integration into its formation. He calls for a historicized understanding of voluntari-
ness that recognizes its dual potential as a tool of subjugation and a resource for critique and
resistance.