Protecting the empire's humanity : Thomas Hodgkin and British colonial activism 1830-1870 /
Laidlaw, Zoë,author.
"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"--
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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.
"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"--
Hodgkin, Thomas, 1798-1866
Hodgkin, Thomas, 1798-1866
Aborigines Protection Society (Great Britain)
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Colonization