Empire and Identity: An Eighteenth-Century Sourcebook

by Stephen H. Gregg

Overview

This anthology of primary material brings together literary and non-literary texts from the 18th century focusing on issues including commerce and colonialism. Britons' sense of identity in the 18th century see-sawed between embattled vulnerability and unassailable supremacy. Empire was crucial in shaping this, but contact with other peoples often threw into sharp relief or transformed this sense of identity. This book will be an essential resource for those studying this period; it traces these shifts in mood and the impact of imperial encounters in a variety of material, including poems, plays, speeches, letters, and accounts of travel, exploration and captivity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350308800
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	10/16/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

STEPHEN H. GREGG is Lecturer in the School of English and Creative Studies at Bath Spa University, UK.

Table of Contents

Contents by Theme
Preface
Acknowledgements
Note on Texts
Introduction
Select Bibliography
John Locke, from Two Treatises of Government (1690)
Aphra Behn, from The Widow Ranter (1690)
Charles Davenant, from 'On the Plantation Trade' (1698)
Joseph Pitts, from A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans... With an Account of the Author's being taken Captive, and of his Escape (1704)
Richard Steele, The Spectator, no. 11 (1711) ['Inkle and Yarico']
Jonathan Swift and Joseph Addison, The Spectator, no. 50 (1711) ['The Indian Kings']
Joseph Addison, The Spectator, no. 69 (1711) ['The Royal Exchange']
Alexander Pope, from Windsor Forest (1713)
[Jocelyn], from An Essay on Money and Bullion (1718)
Daniel Defoe, from Captain Singleton (1720) and A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)
James Thomson, Britannia (1729)
George Lillo, from The London Merchant (1731)
James Thomson and David Mallet, 'Rule Britannia' (1740)
John Dyer, from The Ruins of Rome (1740)
Joseph Warton, The Dying Indian (1755)
John Brown, from An Estimate of the Manners and Times (1757-58)
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, from Letters... written, during her travels in Europe, Asia and Africa (1763)
William Smith, from An Historical Account of the Expedition against the Ohio Indians (1766)
James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, from A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of... An African Prince (1770)
Samuel Foote, The Nabob (1772)
John Hawkesworth, from An Account of the Voyages... in the Southern Hempisphere (1773)
Phillis Wheatley, To the King's Most Excellent Majesty (1773), On Being Brought from Africa to America (1773), To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth (1773), A Farewel to America (1773)
Edward Long, from The History of Jamaica (1774)
Frances Burney, Letter to Mr Crisp [Omai's visit] (1774)
Edmund Burke, from 'Speech... for Conciliation with the Colonies' (1775)
Adam Smith, from The Wealth of Nations (1776)
Janet Schaw, from Journal of a Lady of Quality. Being the Narrative of a Journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal (1774-76)
Jemima Kindersley, from Letters from... the East Indies (1777)
James Cook, from A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World (1777)
Joseph Peart, from A Continuation of Hudibras in Two Cantos. Written in the Time of the Unhappy Contest between Great Britain and America (1778)
Anna Seward, from Elegy on Captain Cook (1780)
James Freeth, American Contest, Bunker Hill (1780-82), The Contest (1782)
Ignatius Sancho, from Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African (1782)
Edmund Burke, from 'Speech on Fox's East-India Bill' (1784)
Ottobah Cugoano, from Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1787)
CODA
John Freeth, Botany Bay (1790).

Editorial Reviews

"Stephen Gregg has put together an extremely well-balanced selection, representing the manner in which Britannia ruled the waves in the eighteenth century. He includes gendered and subaltern voices among the canonical ones, demonstrating the complex identities that were fashioned when empire encountered different zones, such as the Atlantic, the Orient, and the Pacific. Also featuring The Nabob, Samuel Foote's satirical drama, in its entirety, this sourcebook is a succinct resource of extracts from various genres for the benefit of both teachers and students." --Srinivas Aravamudan, Duke University

From the Publisher