Protecting the empire's humanity : Thomas Hodgkin and British colonial activism 1830-1870 / Zoë Laidlaw, University of Melbourne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Laidlaw, Zoë, author.

Series:

Critical perspectives on empire.

Critical perspectives on empire

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hodgkin, Thomas, 1798-1866--Influence.

Hodgkin, Thomas.

Hodgkin, Thomas, 1798-1866--Political and social views.

Aborigines Protection Society (Great Britain)--History.

Aborigines Protection Society (Great Britain).

Indigenous peoples--Legal status, laws, etc--History--19th century.

Indigenous peoples.

Colonization--Social aspects--History--19th century.

Colonization.

Indigenous peoples--Social conditions.

Great Britain--History--Victoria, 1837-1901.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Colonies--Administration--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 374 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

Rooted in the extraordinary archive of Quaker physician and humanitarian activist, Dr Thomas Hodgkin, this book explores the efforts of the Aborigines' Protection Society to expose Britain's hypocrisy and imperial crimes in the mid-nineteenth century. Hodgkin's correspondents stretched from Liberia to Lesotho, New Zealand to Texas, Jamaica to Ontario, and Bombay to South Australia; they included scientists, philanthropists, missionaries, systematic colonizers, politicians and indigenous peoples themselves. Debating the best way to protect and advance indigenous rights in an era of burgeoning settler colonialism, they looked back to the lessons and limitations of anti-slavery, lamented the imperial government's disavowal of responsibility for settler colonies, and laid out elaborate (and patronizing) plans for indigenous 'civilization'. Protecting the Empire's Humanity reminds us of the complexity, contradictions and capacious nature of British colonialism and metropolitan 'humanitarianism', illuminating the broad canvas of empire through a distinctive set of British and Indigenous campaigners.

Contents:

Introduction

Indigenous protection at the humanitarian apogee

Metropolitan contexts: Thomas Hodgkin, science and medicine

Anti-slavery, colonization and emigration: 'civilizing' West Africa

Free trade versus free labour: British India and the West Indies

Making colonization civilizing: the Aborigines' Protection Society

Dealing with the devil: systematic colonization in Australasia

Conscripts of civilization: North American networks

Betrayal in the borderlands: Lesotho and New Zealand

Conclusion.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 14 Sep 2021).

ISBN:

1-108-16925-2

1-108-17405-1

1-108-16465-X

OCLC:

1253438558