At the beginning of Chapter VIII of The Second Treatise of Government, John Locke famously states that in the state of nature, “[m]en . . . [are] by nature all free, equal, and independent.” Locke claims his account is historically true despite societies’ forgetfulness about their origins. In the state of nature, “no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty, a