Defoe's study of Misson is different from the Utopias of More, Bacon or Campanella in so far as there is no discovery of an ideal civilization. Libertalia is a Utopia which reflects a direct reaction to the abuses of the time--abuses of economic, political and religious freedom. Anticipating Beccaria's criticism of the death penalty by almost forty years, Carracioli argues that since man's right to life is inalienable, no government can have the power of capital punishment.[4] Misson's belief in equality is extended to include the negro slaves the _Victoire_ takes at sea as well as the natives of Madagascar. After asking the negroes to join his crew, Misson tells his men that the Trading for those of our own Species, could never be agreeable to the Eyes of divine Justice: That no Man had Power of the Liberty of another; and while those who profess'd a more enlightened Knowledge of the Deity, sold men like Beasts; they prov'd that their Religion was no more than Crimace...: For his Part he hop'd, he spoke the Sentiments of all his brave Companions, he had not exempted his Neck from the galling Yoak of Slavery, and asserted his own Liberty to enslave others. Slavery is banished from Misson's ship, and the negroes are schooled in the principles of freedom. Perhaps the most difficult problem in discussing the principles of Misson and Carracioli is to attempt an explanation of why Defoe, a Presbyterian, should have made his protagonists into deists. Defoe attacks Carracioli's deistic arguments through his narrator, Captain Johnson, who remarks that such ideas are pernicious only to "weak Men who cannot discover their Fallacy." But since similar ideas appear in Robert _Drury's Journal_ published a year later, it may be assumed that the arguments of the deists held a certain fascination for Defoe at this time. Carracioli's deism also has a dramatic function in the story. That on a voyage to Rome a young man like Misson should be converted to deism by a disillusioned "lewd" priest was in harmony with the traditional English belief in the dangers of Italy.[5] That Carracioli should combine the rebellion against organized religion with the revolt against monarchy is indicative of Defoe's keen apprehension of the future course of history.