Abstract

This chapter takes up Locke’s interest in travel literature and examines the ways in which travel literature of two types—explorer travelogues and utopian texts—can be used to expand our understanding of Locke’s colonial thinking and to better render the details not only of colonial founding but also colonial unsettlement. The essay focuses on Locke’s notes on ‘Atlantis’ and his work with the Carolina colony and other colonial ventures of the period, such as the East India Company and the Royal African Company. These facets of Locke’s work, although less familiar to many political theorists, help to further flesh out Locke’s complex legacy and our understanding of ‘settler colonial logic’ in the period.