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Reforming Everywhere and All at Once Transitioning to Free Labor Across the British Empire 1837-1838.pdf (434.1 kB)

Reforming everywhere and all at once: transitioning to free labor across the British empire, 1837-1838

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posted on 2023-06-09, 06:34 authored by Kate Boehme, Peter Mitchell, Alan LesterAlan Lester
In late 1837 and early 1838 the British imperial government was preparing for an empire-wide transition from bonded to nominally free labor. This article builds upon recent scholarship that promotes a holistic, global approach to this transition, by narrowing the temporal frame and expanding the spatial. We emphasize interconnectivity and simultaneity rather than chronological succession, and we analyze the governance, rather than the experience, of this transition. Our approach is founded upon analysis of correspondence passing from every British colonial site through the Colonial Office in 1837–1838. We suggest that this hub of imperial government sought to reconcile the persistence of different conditions in each colony with the pursuit of three overarching policy objectives: redistributing labor globally; distinguishing between the moral debts owed to different kinds of bonded labor, and managing tradeoffs between security, economy, and morality. We conclude that the governance of the transition to free labor is best conceived as an assemblage of material and expressive elements of different spatial scales, whose interactions were complex and indeterminate. Through these specific governmental priorities and a particular communications infrastructure, these elements were brought into critical alignment at this moment to shape a significant transition in relations between people across the world.

Funding

Snapshots of Empire: managing a diverse empire all at once; G1680; LEVERHULME TRUST; RPG-2015-155

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Comparative Studies in Society and History

ISSN

0010-4175

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Issue

3

Volume

60

Page range

688-718

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-06-07

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-06-07

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-06-07

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