ZAA 2017; 65(2): 145–159 Patrice D. Douglass* The Claim of Right to Property: Social Violence and Political Right DOI 10.1515/zaa-2017-0017 Abstract: This article offers a close reading of The Order of Things by Michael Fou- cault and The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt, to argue that the positioning of the Human within scientific and political thought necessitates an underscor- ing of violence as it relates to blackness. This position interrogates how Arendt positions slavery in the Greek polis and the Roman res republica to establish her foci on modern political life. I offer an analysis of Prigg v. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as complicating Arendt’s political dichotomy by shifting focus to the legal history of US American slavery. Prigg rewrites and establishes the demarcations of US Federal and State law. However, the majority opinion and dis- sents make fleeting reference to the fugitive slave in question, Margaret Morgan, and the possibility that she may have been sexually violated while being forci- bly returned to slavery. I conclude that the contours of this case, specifically the erasure of sexual violence, demonstrate how racial slavery provides contexts to modern political life not explored by Arendt’s primary concern with slavery in antiquity. 1 Introduction Generally, property is divided into two major areas: realty and personalty. Realty is land, whereas personalty is possessions – for instance, jewelry, money, furniture, or (formerly) slaves. – “Property Law” (n.d.), Law Library of Congress There is an unspoken logic that sutures the entrance of subjects into political discourse. Theoretical approaches to political structures often assume a neutral subject for which violent apparatuses are applied. This framing resists critiques of violence that articulate the locus of its formation within the particular con- stitution of a singular subject position. The merger of theory and politics con- verges upon the subject as a preconstituted intelligibility born into freedom which violence becomes a later sensibility for within the world. However, when *Corresponding author: Patrice D. Douglass, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Justice, Community and Leadership Program, Saint Mary’s College of CA, Moraga, CA, USA, e-mail: pdouglas@uci.edu Authenticated | pdouglas@uci.edu author's copy Download Date | 6/28/17 5:25 PM