A fascinating look at how humanitarian language was used by the colonial press in New Zealand and on Vancouver Island to justify ongoing settler expansion while allaying fears of Indigenous resistance.

Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, fear of Indigenous uprisings spread across the British Empire and nibbled at the edges of settler societies. Publicly admitting to this anxiety, however, would have gone counter to Victorian notions of racial superiority.

In Settler Anxiety at the Outposts of Empire Kenton Storey opens a window on this time by comparing newspaper coverage in the 1850s and 1860s in the colonies of New Zealand and Vancouver Island. Challenging the idea that there was a decline in the popularity of humanitarianism across the British Empire in the mid-nineteenth century, he demonstrates how government officials and newspaper editors appropriated humanitarian rhetoric as a flexible political language. Whereas humanitarianism had previously been used by Christian evangelists to promote Indigenous rights, during this period it became a popular means to justify the expansion of settlers’ access to land and to promote racial segregation, all while insisting on the “protection” of Indigenous peoples.

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[T]his book is a useful exploration of race, humanitarianism, settler anxiety, and the imperial press, with a comparative framing that is both evocative and revealing.

"Settler Anxiety contributes to histories of the British empire, of the interconnections the colonies established within and beyond the empire, and of the role of humanitarianism in shaping colonial policies toward indigenous peoples ... Storey’s history offers an important counterpoint to British imperial histories and to U.S. histories of this period." - Pacific Northwest Quarterly

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Storey has written an important book … anyone seriously interested in settler colonialism and its relationship with Indigenous peoples will find it a well-researched and well-connected study with surprisingly broad implications.

"Settler Anxiety at the Outposts of Empire is meticulously researched and engagingly written. The colonial intrigues of the mid-nineteenth century are suffused with a freshness that draws readers in, as if they were reading about current events. It is a valuable addition to our understanding of the colonization process in New Zealand and on Vancouver Island." - BC Studies

"Storey provides a highly nuanced, detailed and thought-provoking exploration of the place of humanitarianism in print culture, in both settler societies, and its relationship to a metropolitan debate about imperial responsibility, in particular in the face of threats of violence." - Journal of New Zealand Studies