Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830-1867

576 Pages·2002·37.392 MB·English

by  Catherine Hall

Metropole and Colony in the
English Imagination 1 8 3 0 - 1 8 67
C a t h e r i ne H a ll
: ••••
-> V
J
C I V I L I S I NG
S U B J E C TS
i
For Stuart and Gail C I V I L I S I NG
S U B J E C TS
Colony and Metropole in the
English Imagination, 1830-1867
C a t h e r i ne Hall
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
For Stuart and Gail C I V I L I S I NG
S U B J E C TS
Colony and Metropole in the
English Imagination, 1830-1867
C a t h e r i ne Hall
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Catherine Hall is professor of history at University College London.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Polity Press, Cambridge CB2 1UR, United Kingdom
© 2002 by Catherine Hall
All rights reserved. Published 2002
Printed in Great Britain
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 12 3 4 5
Contents
ISBN: 0-226-31334-4 (cloth}
G \9
ISBN: 0-226-31335-2 (paper)
CIP data is available.
» The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for List of maps and illustrations vn
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39,48-1992. Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations xii
Cast of Characters xiii
Introduction
Prologue: The Making of an Imperial Man 23
Australia 27
New Zealand 42
St Vincent and Antigua 47
Jamaica 57
Part I Colony and Metropole 67
Mapping Jamaica: The Pre-emancipation World
in the Metropolitan Mind 69
1 The Missionary Dream 1820-1842 84
The Baptist Missionary Society and the missionary project 86
Missionaries and planters 98
The war of representation 107
The constitution of the new black subject 115
The free villages 120
L
Catherine Hall is professor of history at University College London.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Polity Press, Cambridge CB2 1UR, United Kingdom
© 2002 by Catherine Hall
All rights reserved. Published 2002
Printed in Great Britain
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 12 3 4 5
Contents
ISBN: 0-226-31334-4 (cloth}
G \9
ISBN: 0-226-31335-2 (paper)
CIP data is available.
» The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for List of maps and illustrations vn
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39,48-1992. Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations xii
Cast of Characters xiii
Introduction
Prologue: The Making of an Imperial Man 23
Australia 27
New Zealand 42
St Vincent and Antigua 47
Jamaica 57
Part I Colony and Metropole 67
Mapping Jamaica: The Pre-emancipation World
in the Metropolitan Mind 69
1 The Missionary Dream 1820-1842 84
The Baptist Missionary Society and the missionary project 86
Missionaries and planters 98
The war of representation 107
The constitution of the new black subject 115
The free villages 120
L
VI Contents
2 Fault-tines in the Family of Man 1842-1845 140
Native agency and the Africa mission 140
The Baptist family 150
Brother Knibb 161
3 (A Jamaica of the Mind' 1820-1854 174
Phillippo's Jamaica 174
'A place of gloomy darkness' 199 Illustrations
4 Missionary Men and Morant Bay 1859-1866 209
Anthony Trollope and Mr Secretary Underbill 209
The trials of life 229
Morant Bay and after 243
Part II Metropolis, Colony and Empire 265 1 The British Empire 1837-1870 26
2 Map of Jamaica 68
Mapping the Midland Metropolis 267 3 Falmouth taken from the church tower (c.1840) 80
4 Baptist chapel and dwelling house at Sligoville 126
5 The 'Friends of the Negro': Baptists and Abolitionists 5 Clarkson Town 129
146
1825-1842 290 6 Africa receiving the Gospel
163
7 William Knibb, a print by George Baxter
The Baptists in Birmingham and the missionary public 290 164
8 Jubilee meeting at Kettering
Knowing 'the heathen' 301 181
9 Emancipation, 1 August 1834
Birmingham's 'Friends of the Negro* 309 188
10 Heathen practices at funerals
The Utopian years 325 191
N 11 Visit of a missionary and his wife to a plantation village
194
> 12 Interior of Baptist chapel, Spanish Town
6 The Limits of Friendship: Abolitionism in Decline
356
13 Joseph Sturge
1842-1859 338 364
14 George Dawson
384
'A population intellectually at zero' 338 15 Carrs Lane chapel
Carlyle's occasion 347
George Dawson and the politics of race and nationalism 363
Troubles for the missionary public 370
7 Town, Nation and Empire 1859-1867 380
New times 380
Morant Bay 406
Birmingham men 424
Epilogue 434
Notes - 442
Bibliography 507
Index 536
VI Contents
2 Fault-tines in the Family of Man 1842-1845 140
Native agency and the Africa mission 140
The Baptist family 150
Brother Knibb 161
3 (A Jamaica of the Mind' 1820-1854 174
Phillippo's Jamaica 174
'A place of gloomy darkness' 199 Illustrations
4 Missionary Men and Morant Bay 1859-1866 209
Anthony Trollope and Mr Secretary Underbill 209
The trials of life 229
Morant Bay and after 243
Part II Metropolis, Colony and Empire 265 1 The British Empire 1837-1870 26
2 Map of Jamaica 68
Mapping the Midland Metropolis 267 3 Falmouth taken from the church tower (c.1840) 80
4 Baptist chapel and dwelling house at Sligoville 126
5 The 'Friends of the Negro': Baptists and Abolitionists 5 Clarkson Town 129
146
1825-1842 290 6 Africa receiving the Gospel
163
7 William Knibb, a print by George Baxter
The Baptists in Birmingham and the missionary public 290 164
8 Jubilee meeting at Kettering
Knowing 'the heathen' 301 181
9 Emancipation, 1 August 1834
Birmingham's 'Friends of the Negro* 309 188
10 Heathen practices at funerals
The Utopian years 325 191
N 11 Visit of a missionary and his wife to a plantation village
194
> 12 Interior of Baptist chapel, Spanish Town
6 The Limits of Friendship: Abolitionism in Decline
356
13 Joseph Sturge
1842-1859 338 364
14 George Dawson
384
'A population intellectually at zero' 338 15 Carrs Lane chapel
Carlyle's occasion 347
George Dawson and the politics of race and nationalism 363
Troubles for the missionary public 370
7 Town, Nation and Empire 1859-1867 380
New times 380
Morant Bay 406
Birmingham men 424
Epilogue 434
Notes - 442
Bibliography 507
Index 536
*TW
Acknowledgements ix
Clare Hall - who have given me a home in Kingston for all my research
trips. They have been most tolerant of the years of work involved in
this project, while they have been preoccupied with more immediate
needs on the island. Joan Tucker, Audrey Cooper, Annie Paul and David
Scott have all helped me to think about Jamaica. Margaret Allen, Vicki
Crowley, Ann Curthoys, Marilyn Lake and Kay Schaffer helped me
to focus on Australia. In New Zealand Charlotte Macdonald and
Raewyn Dalziel were my main interlocutors. In every instance it has been
Acknowledgements a wonderful experience to visit and explore the places on which I am
working.
0 ^9
The librarians at the Birmingham Central Library have been most
helpful. Thanks to Sue Mills at the Angus Library, Regent's Park College,
and Elizabeth Douall, who had special responsibility for the Baptist
Missionary Society archive when I was working there. More recently
Jennifer Thorp, the current archivist, has been most helpful. Thanks also
I am deeply grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council, for to the archivists at the National Library of Jamaica and to the staff at
their grant (ref. no. R000232169) from 1990 to 1992 to do some of the the Jamaica Baptist Union. Between 1990 and 1992 I spent many happy
work for this book. At that stage I had no idea that it would be such a hours in the reading room of the British Library, then housed in the
loiig project. The fellowship from the Nuffield Foundation for 1995-6 British Museum, and I have also found the London Library a wonder
was also invaluable, and enabled me to extend the original scale of the ful resource. Megan Doolittle's research assistance at the University of
research. I have worked in three institutions since 1988 (when I con Essex was invaluable. Ruth Percy and Ralph Kingston at University
ceived the idea of working on England and Jamaica in the mid-nineteenth College both helped me to get the manuscript together at critical points.
century): the University of East London, the University of Essex and Uni Richard Smith's assistance with the illustrations has been much appreci
versity College London. Each institution has made it possible for me, ated, as has Bill Storey's photography and Keith McClelland's help with
even in these times, to research and write. the bibliography.
This piece of work has taken over ten years to complete, and I have Many friends have supported me. My talks with Sally Alexander
received much help and support along the way. I have given papers based about history over nearly thirty years have been, and continue to be, a
on the research in innumerable institutions: each occasion has helped me joy and a pleasure. Michele Barrett, Avtar Brah, Leonore Davidoff,
to formulate my own ideas and to debate with audiences. I have been Miriam Glucksmann, Alison Light, Jokhim Meikle, Judy Walkowitz and
especially fortunate in being able to present the work across some parts Sophie Watson have all listened to me, argued with me and sustained
of that erstwhile empire with which I have engaged. Papers presented me. David Albury thought of the title Civilising Subjects many years ago.
to the Conference on 'Engendering the History of the Caribbean' at the Gad Heuman and Mary Chamberlain welcomed me to the field of
University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica; to the Association of Caribbean history in Britain. Tom Holt and Brian Stanley both kindly
Australian Historians in Perth; to the Association of New Zealand His allowed me to see material before it was published. Clyde Binfield has
torians in Wellington; and to the Association of Canadian Historians in shared his unrivalled knowledge of nineteenth-century nonconformity
St Johns, Newfoundland, have been particularly significant moments. with me. I have found intellectual sustenance in the growing community
In addition, I have given papers in many US and British universities, in of feminist historians engaged in rethinking empire both in Britain and
Ireland, South Africa and Brazil over the years, and have always learned the USA. Particular thanks to Antoinette Burton, Joanna de Groot, Clare
from these occasions. The group of scholars in history and anthropol Midgley, Sonya Rose, Mrinalini Sinha, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and
ogy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor have been particularly Ann Laura Stoler. The seminar on 'Reconfiguring the British', which
supportive. I thank all those who have invited me. Linda Colley and I have organised at the Institute of Historical Research
I owe an especial debt to the Sisters at Immaculate Conception since 1999, has provided an important intellectual space. The untimely
Convent in Kingston - in particular, my dear cousin Sister Maureen death of Rachel Fruchter in July 1998 was a great blow. Her expeditions
*TW
Acknowledgements ix
Clare Hall - who have given me a home in Kingston for all my research
trips. They have been most tolerant of the years of work involved in
this project, while they have been preoccupied with more immediate
needs on the island. Joan Tucker, Audrey Cooper, Annie Paul and David
Scott have all helped me to think about Jamaica. Margaret Allen, Vicki
Crowley, Ann Curthoys, Marilyn Lake and Kay Schaffer helped me
to focus on Australia. In New Zealand Charlotte Macdonald and
Raewyn Dalziel were my main interlocutors. In every instance it has been
Acknowledgements a wonderful experience to visit and explore the places on which I am
working.
0 ^9
The librarians at the Birmingham Central Library have been most
helpful. Thanks to Sue Mills at the Angus Library, Regent's Park College,
and Elizabeth Douall, who had special responsibility for the Baptist
Missionary Society archive when I was working there. More recently
Jennifer Thorp, the current archivist, has been most helpful. Thanks also
I am deeply grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council, for to the archivists at the National Library of Jamaica and to the staff at
their grant (ref. no. R000232169) from 1990 to 1992 to do some of the the Jamaica Baptist Union. Between 1990 and 1992 I spent many happy
work for this book. At that stage I had no idea that it would be such a hours in the reading room of the British Library, then housed in the
loiig project. The fellowship from the Nuffield Foundation for 1995-6 British Museum, and I have also found the London Library a wonder
was also invaluable, and enabled me to extend the original scale of the ful resource. Megan Doolittle's research assistance at the University of
research. I have worked in three institutions since 1988 (when I con Essex was invaluable. Ruth Percy and Ralph Kingston at University
ceived the idea of working on England and Jamaica in the mid-nineteenth College both helped me to get the manuscript together at critical points.
century): the University of East London, the University of Essex and Uni Richard Smith's assistance with the illustrations has been much appreci
versity College London. Each institution has made it possible for me, ated, as has Bill Storey's photography and Keith McClelland's help with
even in these times, to research and write. the bibliography.
This piece of work has taken over ten years to complete, and I have Many friends have supported me. My talks with Sally Alexander
received much help and support along the way. I have given papers based about history over nearly thirty years have been, and continue to be, a
on the research in innumerable institutions: each occasion has helped me joy and a pleasure. Michele Barrett, Avtar Brah, Leonore Davidoff,
to formulate my own ideas and to debate with audiences. I have been Miriam Glucksmann, Alison Light, Jokhim Meikle, Judy Walkowitz and
especially fortunate in being able to present the work across some parts Sophie Watson have all listened to me, argued with me and sustained
of that erstwhile empire with which I have engaged. Papers presented me. David Albury thought of the title Civilising Subjects many years ago.
to the Conference on 'Engendering the History of the Caribbean' at the Gad Heuman and Mary Chamberlain welcomed me to the field of
University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica; to the Association of Caribbean history in Britain. Tom Holt and Brian Stanley both kindly
Australian Historians in Perth; to the Association of New Zealand His allowed me to see material before it was published. Clyde Binfield has
torians in Wellington; and to the Association of Canadian Historians in shared his unrivalled knowledge of nineteenth-century nonconformity
St Johns, Newfoundland, have been particularly significant moments. with me. I have found intellectual sustenance in the growing community
In addition, I have given papers in many US and British universities, in of feminist historians engaged in rethinking empire both in Britain and
Ireland, South Africa and Brazil over the years, and have always learned the USA. Particular thanks to Antoinette Burton, Joanna de Groot, Clare
from these occasions. The group of scholars in history and anthropol Midgley, Sonya Rose, Mrinalini Sinha, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and
ogy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor have been particularly Ann Laura Stoler. The seminar on 'Reconfiguring the British', which
supportive. I thank all those who have invited me. Linda Colley and I have organised at the Institute of Historical Research
I owe an especial debt to the Sisters at Immaculate Conception since 1999, has provided an important intellectual space. The untimely
Convent in Kingston - in particular, my dear cousin Sister Maureen death of Rachel Fruchter in July 1998 was a great blow. Her expeditions