Settler Anxiety at the Outposts of Empire
Colonial Relations, Humanitarian Discourses, and the Imperial Press
A fascinating look at how humanitarian language was used by the colonial press in New Zealand and on Vancouver Island to justify ongoing settler expansion while allaying fears of Indigenous resistance.
Description
During the 1850s and 1860s, there was considerable anxiety among British settlers over the potential for Indigenous rebellion and violence. Yet, publicly admitting to this fear would have gone counter to Victorian notions of racial superiority. In this fascinating book, Kenton Storey challenges the idea that a series of colonial crises in the mid-nineteenth century led to a decline in the popularity of humanitarianism across the British Empire. Instead, he demonstrates how colonial newspapers in New Zealand and on Vancouver Island appropriated humanitarian language as a means of justifying the expansion of settlers’ access to land, promoting racial segregation and allaying fears of potential Indigenous resistance.
Reviews
Storey provides a highly nuanced, detailed and thought-provoking exploration of the place of humanitarianism in print culture, in both settler societies, and its relationship to a metropolitan debate about imperial responsibility, in particular in the face of threats of violence.
- Michael Belgrave
Settler Anxiety contributes to histories of the British empire, of the interconnections the colonies established within and beyond the empire, and of the role of humanitarianism in shaping colonial policies toward indigenous peoples ... Storey’s history offers an important counterpoint to British imperial histories and to U.S. histories of this period.
- Veta Schlimgen, Gonzaga University
[T]his book is a useful exploration of race, humanitarianism, settler anxiety, and the imperial press, with a comparative framing that is both evocative and revealing.
- Laura Ishiguro, University of British Columbia
Settler Anxiety at the Outposts of Empire is meticulously researched and engagingly written. The colonial intrigues of the mid-nineteenth century are suffused with a freshness that draws readers in, as if they were reading about current events. It is a valuable addition to our understanding of the colonization process in New Zealand and on Vancouver Island.
- Robert Hogg, University of Queensland, Australia
Storey has written an important book … anyone seriously interested in settler colonialism and its relationship with Indigenous peoples will find it a well-researched and well-connected study with surprisingly broad implications.
- Cole Harris