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Introduction

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Benevolent Colonizers in Nineteenth-Century Australia

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series ((CIPCSS))

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Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated the decisive role members of the Religious Society of Friends have played in establishing and maintaining world-encompassing humanitarian efforts, namely the abolitionist and the prison reform movements as well as the first land rights movement. This study, by contrast, focuses on the ways and means by which the mundane lives, the everyday experiences and practices of Quakers in colonial Australia, especially Van Diemen’s Land and South Australia, were integrated into the humanitarian discourses on the one hand and settler colonialism on the other. It presents an outsider’s view, informed by the cognitive dissonance resulting from the uncanny dis/similarities, between the ongoing Australian ‘History Wars’ and the German Historikerstreit, which had focused on the evaluation and interpretation of genocidal Nazi policies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On 31 July 2010, eleven Australian Convict Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (“Australian Convict Sites,” Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy, http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/convict-sites, last access 20 January 2017). Visitors’ numbers retrieved from “Annual Report 2014–15,” 12, Port Arthur History Sites, http://portarthur.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2007/03/PArthur-Annual-Report-2014-15.pdf, last access 20 January 2017.

  2. 2.

    Rolls 2010. On Sydney’s Aboriginal history see: Attenbrow 2010.

  3. 3.

    Macintyre and Clark 2003; Bonnell and Crotty 2004; Goodall 2008.

  4. 4.

    Augstein et al. 1987; Barta 2001.

  5. 5.

    Conrad 2002, p. 148; Eckert and Wirz 2002, pp. 374–75. Complexities of the relationship between Holocaust, expansion in Eastern Europe, and colonial genocide(s) still not fully explored. For a window into the most recent debates, see Kühne 2013 and Fitzpatrick 2016.

  6. 6.

    One of many examples is the initiative to rename the streets of the so-called “Afrikaviertel” (“African quarter”) in Berlin: Kopp 2016.

  7. 7.

    One of the very few exceptions to this rule: Harman 2012.

  8. 8.

    Wolf 2010.

  9. 9.

    Lawson 2014a.

  10. 10.

    Wells 1991, p. 3.

  11. 11.

    Curthoys 2005 and Lemkin 2005b.

  12. 12.

    “Quaker” was originally a derogative term bestowed upon members of the sect by a magistrate during prosecution in 1647. It was soon appropriated by Friends, who turned the intended insult into an honorific indicating their fear of God. Early Quakers called themselves “Children of the Light.” The self-designation “Religious Society of Friends” was first mentioned in 1665 (Braithwaite 1961a, pp. 57, 45, 307).

  13. 13.

    Windschuttle 2003, pp. 2–3.

  14. 14.

    Manne 2003; Ryan 2012.

  15. 15.

    Johnston and Rolls 2008b, p. 14.

  16. 16.

    Backhouse 1838d, p. 26. The text does not mention the names of the two Maori men involved.

  17. 17.

    Oats and Oats 1982, pp. 82–84.

  18. 18.

    “Certificates of James Backhouse and George Washington Walker,” in: Backhouse 1843, pp. i–v, i (quote).

  19. 19.

    Backhouse 1838c, p. 67.

  20. 20.

    The Quaker Joseph Banks was employed as a botanist on James Cook’s Endeavour (voyages 1768–1771), hence participating in the explorative journey that would supply crucial intelligence in deciding for Australia as location for convict settlement (Banks 1998).

  21. 21.

    Edmonds 2012; Laidlaw 2004, 2007.

  22. 22.

    Evans and Evans 1982; Bennett et al. 2007; Stevenson 1987.

  23. 23.

    Morphett 1943; Durrant and Hack 2013; Oats 1981; Northcott 1978; Walker 1968; Cotton 1987.

  24. 24.

    Oats 1979.

  25. 25.

    Stevenson 1973, 2000; Oats 1985. The study derived from the author’s doctoral thesis (Oats 1982). He also prepared, in collaboration with his wife Marjorie, the “Biographical Index of Quakers in Australia before 1862” (Oats and Oats 1982).

  26. 26.

    West and Fawell 1973; Brodie and Brodie 1993, 1999.

  27. 27.

    Davidoff and Hall 1997, p. 88.

  28. 28.

    The most prominent examples in the collections at hand are the letters exchanged between Francis Cotton and his son-in-law Joseph Benson Mather (TUA, DX 20/2088-2106). Considering these and other collections, it is important to keep in mind that the majority of them were not emigrants’ letters, that is, communications to relatives of friends left behind, which form the basis for many classic studies of migration history. See for example Jones 1973, p. 16; Elliott et al. 2006. 

  29. 29.

    Stoler 2002, p. 87.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., pp. 1–53.

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  1. Department of International History, Trier University, Trier, Germany

    Eva Bischoff

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  1. Eva Bischoff
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Bischoff, E. (2020). Introduction. In: Benevolent Colonizers in Nineteenth-Century Australia. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32667-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32667-8_1

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