London and Jamestown
London and Jamestown
Chapter 2 moves between Britain and the South Atlantic. It investigates the articulations between the Metropolitangovernment and St Helena, and in so doing addresses the balance between text and context, and between the island’s Liberated African Establishment and the world outside. It begins by considering the extent to which events on the island were a matter of public and parliamentary knowledge, finding, in fact, that they largely passed without notice. Interest from the media, parliament and the anti-slavery lobby was limited, enabling governance to be almost entirely conducted behind closed doors in Whitehall. It was nevertheless an acrimonious matter for the various departments involved in this small aspect of colonial governance. Their unresolved debate about whether the island was a fit place to receive liberated Africans led to naval instructions that were continuously in flux, and was in large part responsible for the Establishment’s underlying sense of impermanence.
Keywords: Anti-slavery lobby, Colonial governance, Metropolitan government, Media, Parliament
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