In 1720s London, a well-known band of young ruffians gave themselves crescent tattoos and adorned turbans in honour of their so-called'mohamattan [Muslim]'Indian namesakes, the Mohawk. Few Britons noticed the gang's mistaken muddling of North American and Indian subcontinent geographies and cultures. Even fewer cared in an age in which'Indian'was a catch-all term applied to theatre characters, philosophies, and objects whose only common characteristic often was that they were not European. Yet just thirty years later, when the North American empire had entered centre stage, Londoners bought Iroquois tomahawks at auctions; provincial newspapers debated Cherokee politics; women shopkeepers read aloud newspaper accounts of frontier battles as their husbands counted the takings; church congregations listened to the sermons of American Indian converts; families toured museum exhibits of American Indian artefacts; and Oxford dons wagered their bottles of port on the outcome of American wars. Focusing on the question,'How did the British who remained in Britain perceive American Indians, and how did these perceptions reflect and affect British culture?', Savages within the Empire explores both how Britons engaged with the peripheries of their Atlantic empire without leaving home, and, equally important, how their forged understanding significantly affected the British and their rapidly expanding world. It draws from a wide range of evidence to consider an array of eighteenth-century contexts, including material culture, print culture, imperial government policy, the Church of England's missionary endeavours, the Scottish Enlightenment, and the public outcry over the use of American Indians as allies during the American War of Independence. By chronicling and exploring discussions and representations of American Indians in these contexts, Troy Bickham reveals the proliferation of empire-related subjects in eighteenth-century British culture as well as the prevailing pragmatism with which Britons approached them.

zlib/Society, Politics & Philosophy/Anthropology/Troy Bickham/Savages within the Empire: Representations of American Indians in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Oxford Historical Monographs)_29236087.pdf

Bickham, Troy

Oxford University Press; Clarendon Press

IRL Press at Oxford University Press

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

German Historical Institute London

Oxford University Press, USA

Oxford historical monographs, Oxford ; New York, 2005

OXFORD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS, OXFORD, Unknown

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

Oxford University Press USA, Oxford, 2005

Oxford, New York, England, 2005

January 14, 2006

producers:
PDFsharp 1.0.898 (www.pdfsharp.com)

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)

<p>In 1720s London, a well-known band of young ruffians gave themselves crescent tattoos and adorned turbans in honor of their so-called "mohamattan [Muslim]" Indian namesakes, the Mohawk. Few Britons noticed the gang's mistaken muddling of North American and Indian subcontinent geographies and cultures. Even fewer cared in an age in which "Indian" was a catch-all term applied to theatre characters, philosophies, and objects whose only common characteristic often was that they were not European. Yet just thirty years later, when the North American empire had entered center stage, Londoners bought Iroquois tomahawks at auctions; provincial newspapers debated Cherokee politics; women shopkeepers read aloud newspaper accounts of frontier battles as their husbands counted the takings; church congregations listened to the sermons of American Indian converts; families toured museum exhibits of American Indian artefacts; and Oxford dons wagered their bottles of port on the outcome of American wars.</p>
<p>Focusing on the question, 'How did the British who remained in Britain perceive American Indians, and how did these perceptions reflect and affect British culture?', <b>Savages within the Empire</b> explores both how Britons engaged with the peripheries of their Atlantic empire without leaving home, and, equally important, how their forged understanding significantly affected the British and their rapidly expanding world. It draws from a wide range of evidence to consider an array of eighteenth-century contexts, including material culture, print culture, imperial government policy, the Church of England's missionary endeavours, the Scottish Enlightenment, and the public outcry over the use of American Indians as allies during the American War of Independence. By chronicling and exploring discussions and representations of American Indians in these contexts, Troy Bickham reveals the proliferation of empire-related subjects in eighteenth-century British culture as well as the prevailing pragmatism with which Britons approached them.</p>

In 1720s London, a well-known band of young ruffians gave themselves crescent tattoos and adorned turbans in honour of their so-called 'mohamattan [Muslim]' Indian namesakes, the Mohawk. Few Britons noticed the gang's mistaken muddling of North American and Indian subcontinent geographies and cultures. Even fewer cared in an age in which 'Indian' was a catch-all term applied to theatre characters, philosophies, and objects whose only common characteristic often was that they were not European. Yet just thirty years later, when the North American empire had entered centre stage, Londoners bought Iroquois tomahawks at auctions; provincial newspapers debated Cherokee politics; women shopkeepers read aloud newspaper accounts of frontier battles as their husbands counted the takings; church congregations listened to the sermons of American Indian converts; families toured museum exhibits of American Indian artefacts; and Oxford dons wagered their bottles of port on the outcome of American wars

Savages within the Empire explores how Britons perceived and represented American Indians during a time when the empire and its constituent peoples began to capture the nation's sustained attention for the first time. Troy Bickham considers an array of contexts, including newspapers, imperial policy, museum exhibits, the Enlightenment, missionary records, and the public outcry over the use of American Indians as allies during the American War of Independence. He thus. reveals the prevailing pragmatism with which Britons of all ranks approached the empire as well as its impact on British culture

These comments, one from an editor and the other from a reader, encapsulate the context in which widespread British views of North American Indians were formed during the eighteenth century.

Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN-13:,9780199286966

2024-07-17