Abstract: Spirits of Settler Colonialism: Alcohol Consumption and the Temperance Movement in Irish and Indigenous Communities in Nineteenth-Century AmericaThis paper contends that excessive alcohol consumption in Irish and Native communities was a cultural remnant of the violence, erasure, and poverty created by the mechanisms of settler colonialism, rather than a reflection of any moral or genetic weakness. Like all other elements of colonization that their people were combatting, alcoholism was opposed through tactics of resistance and subversion, including the temperance movement. The commitment of Native and Irish people to eradicating intemperance in the nineteenth century demonstrates strength in communal, cultural, and familial survivance. While Native peoples were the original inhabitants of North America, it will be necessary to examine Irish circumstances in both Ireland and Irish America, as the Spirits of Settler Colonialism will also argue that Ireland had longer and more dire issues with alcohol and a failure of temperance movements due to the persistent burden of settler colonialism, particularly surrounding the Great Famine. The Luck of Jesse Fish: The ‘Hispanicized’ Englishman of Colonial St. Augustine A protean businessman, rumored to be British or Spanish spy depending on who was asked, and a self-proclaimed “Hispanicized” Englishman, Jesse Fish’s complex life is exemplary of the powerful capabilities of the Atlantic World to mold men of hybrid identities, and to both shape opportunity and utterly destroy it. His involvement in numerous financial ventures with assorted levels of success (and seemingly with little concern for their moral integrity) indicates the shrewd, upwardly-mobile motivations of a man in the colonial borderlands. Jesse’s identity and outlook was uniquely Atlantic – an amalgamation of British, Spanish, New Yorker and Floridian. Though Fish appeared as a cultural chameleon, a British Protestant by birth and Spaniard in culture and community, his run-ins with both empires indicate a personality willing to take significant risks and switch alliance at a whim. Born with privileges not available to its other citizens, the ambitious Fish navigated the vibrant city of St. Augustine during all three of its supposedly distinctive eighteenth-century periods. He lived through the War of Jenkins’ Ear, the Seven Years’ War, and the American Revolution, survived pirate attacks, and (largely) got away with treason. Despite this, Fish found at the end of his life that his carelessness had caused his luck to run out.


Abstract: Suppression, Representation, and Bias: The Sierra Leone Company, Anna Maria Falconbridge, and Portrayals of Indigenous Africans, 1791-1802This paper examines the first decade of Freetown, a British colony in Sierra Leone. Specifically, it analyzes relations between the Sierra Leone Company, the colony’s administrative and governing body, and indigenous Africans in areas surrounding the colony. Although the Sierra Leone Company officially expressed a desire to establish friendship with indigenous Africans (especially the Temne), the Company’s writings betrayed its intent to control and suppress the Temne. This intent becomes amplified when one compares portrayals of the Temne in the Company’s reports to portrayals of the Temne in Anna Maria Falconbridge’s travel narrative, Two Voyages to Sierra Leone (1794). Falconbridge depicted the Temne in much more respectful ways and even included their perspectives on certain events. For Whom and For What? Promises, Perceptions, and the Trajectory of the Settler Colony of Freetown, 1791-1800This paper analyzes relations between the Sierra Leone Company and Freetown’s Nova Scotian settlers. The paper takes as its focal point the journey of two Nova Scotian settlers, Cato Perkins and Isaac Anderson, to London in 1793 to present a petition of grievances to the Sierra Leone Company. Upon careful investigation of this event, this paper argues that the Sierra Leone Company’s belief in its financial generosity played a significant role in its decision to reject Perkins and Anderson’s petition and that the rebellious sentiments which culminated in the attempted Nova Scotian rebellion of September 1800 began during Perkins and Anderson’s journey. Furthermore, this paper claims that Freetown was a settler colony and identifies significant issues surrounding Perkins and Anderson’s journey to London that scholars of settler colonialism should consider when studying settler colonies. Three such issues are promises made to settlers, the opinions of observers, and the perceptions that colonial administrators have of settlers.