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Atlantic networks, antagonisms and the formation of subaltern political identities

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 6; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14649360500111311

1470-1197

David Featherstone,

Scottish History and National Identity

Abstract This paper engages with historians Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker's account of the connections and circulations which they argue constituted a multi-ethnic Atlantic working class in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Linebaugh and Rediker , ). Their stories of the mobile, networked insurgencies that traversed the early modern Atlantic challenge accounts of the geographies of resistance and labour which treat ethnicities as given and sealed, view subaltern movements as trapped in place and privilege the boundaries between spatial scales. This paper sketches some preliminary aspects of an agenda for thinking spatially the political identities constituted through Atlantic resistances. The paper foregrounds the multiple antagonisms constituted through Atlantic subaltern resistances to explore three aspects of the formation of subaltern political identities in the early-modern Atlantic. Firstly, how the spatial relations of Atlantic networks were brought into contestation through subaltern struggles. Secondly, the plural and mobile character of antagonisms between and within subaltern groups. Finally, the paper explores how subaltern agency and identities were formed in relation to the materialities of Atlantic networks. These arguments are developed through discussion of subaltern resistances in and between Ireland, Newfoundland, the West Coast of Africa, the Virgin Isles and London in the eighteenth century. Keywords: geographies of resistancesubaltern political activitygeographies of labourmulti-ethnic historiesearly-modern Atlantic Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the many helpful archivists who facilitated this research and to the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the William L Clements Library, University of Michigan for permissions to quote from their collections. The arguments of this paper have been sharpened by the rigorous and probing arguments of three referees. Finally, thanks to Andy Morris for his enthusiasm for this project. Notes 1 In drawing on this argument I do not wish to ignore the contribution made by early Marxist theorists to thinking about alliances across nations and ethnicities, see for example, James Connolly's arguments about the importance of constructing multi-ethnic alliances against the First World War (see Connolly ; Lloyd : 349). These alliances, however, often were based on the bringing together of already-constituted socialist traditions in particular nations, rather than the more unofficial interrelations, exchanges and contacts recovered by Linebaugh and Rediker. 2 These historical accounts are also used to produce a 'usable past' for the diverse movements against neo-liberal globalization (see Linebaugh , ; Linebaugh and Rediker : 353). 3 For references to the Whiteboys made by Langman and other Society for the Propagation of the Gospel missionaries in Newfoundland, see Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (S.P.G.), Ms B6/167/173/174/176. Society for Propagation of the Gospel: Calendar of Letters 1723–1780 and copies of these letters are on microfilm at the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House, Oxford. 4 S.P.G., Ms B6/179. 5 S.P.G., Ms B6/172. 6 M. Redknapp writing on order of the Deputy Governor committee of Hudson's Bay to Lord Weymouth on 13 May 1768 (Home Office Domestic Entry Book 1768: 96–97, Public Record Office, SP/44/14). 7 British Library Additional Manuscripts 32990, ff. 107–108, 19 May 1768. 8 Corruption was exacerbated by the different measures of coals which varied geographically and were not uniformly practised or enforced (Colquhoun : 159; Linebaugh : 307). 9 Repertories of the Court of Alderman, Corporation of London Record Office, Vol. cxl: ff. 405, 435. 'The Vat was a flat-bottomed vessel, round in shape, and smaller at the top than at the bottom; its dimensions were prescribed by legislation … Though 'heaped' measure was required, no indication was given as to the size of the heap' (Ashton and Sykes : 207). 10 Repertories of the Court of Alderman, Vol. cxli: f. 54. 11 Sweepings were a customary right to fragmented pieces of leftovers of coal (Linebaugh : 432–433). 12 Alchin Manuscripts, 'Order of the Mayor Against Coal Heaver's Mixing with Coal Traders', Corporation of London Record Office. 13 Alchin Manuscripts, 'No. 31: Papers Relating to the Coal Trade and Coal Labourers etc 1673–1734', Corporation of London Record Office.