Edmund Burke and the Ambivalence of Protection for Slaves: Between Humanity and Control

Menon, Parvathi

Abstract

This article focuses on the period between 1812 and 1834, when the British Empire introduced protection measures to mitigate the suffering of slaves from planter brutality, but also to protect planters from slave rebellion. By examining the impact and influences wielded by Edmund Burke’s Sketch of a Negro Code (1780), this article studies protection as an alliance between the abolitionists and planters who, despite contestations, found in Burke’s Code a means to attain their separate ends. Through the workings of the Office of the Protector, instituted by the imperial authorities in the slave colony of Trinidad, this study examines how it granted slaves the humanity of ‘rights’ against their masters, while also protecting the right to property (in slaves) of the planters. I argue that the paternalistic practice of protection was, as is in the present, at the center of the exploitation of subjugated groups.

Citation

Menon, P. (in press). Edmund Burke and the Ambivalence of Protection for Slaves: Between Humanity and Control. *Journal not in list, 22(2-3), 246-268. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718050-12340151

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 15, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Oct 21, 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 22, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 22, 2120
• Journal: Journal of the History of International Law
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 2-3
• Pages: 246-268
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15718050-12340151
• Keywords: International Law; Slavery; History; Edmund Burke; Amelioration; Protection
• Related Public URLs: https://brill.com/view/journals/jhil/22/2-3/article-p246_4.xml