#French-British financier

[tmarshconnors]

"Gossip columnists are diseases, like 'flu. Everyone is subject to them."

Sir James Michael Goldsmith was a French-British financier, tycoon and politician.

Born: 26 February 1933, Paris, France

Died: 18 July 1997, Benahavís, Spain

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Merle Oberon (Wuthering Heights, The Scarlet Pimpernel)—She was mixed race (born in India and her mother was Sri Lankan) and still managed to make it in the British and American film industries (by passing) despite a rough start in life and industry racism. She was the first Asian person to be nominated for any Academy Award (best actress in 1935)! She also survived a car accident in 1937 and kept on acting until 1973, despite potentially career-ending facial scars. Also, she met her third husband while they were filming a movie together in 1973 (her last movie and she still looks great!). They fell in love and got married in 1975 when she was 62 and he was 36. She died 4 years later in 1979. Iconic.

Jean Seberg (Breathless, Saint Joan)��� Some of us watched À bout de souffle as a lil French undergrad and had the trajectory of our lives changed by Jean Seberg. She IS French new wave!! She is the moment!! She sadly had to work with a lot of shitty directors in her career but even so, she has this magnetic energy whenever she’s on screen. In her personal life, she was also very supportive of civil rights causes, and was even targeted/harassed by the FBI for financially supporting the Black Panther Party.

This is round 3 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Merle Oberon:

Beautiful. Talented. Biracial. Also please refer to the following promo from the aforementioned A Night To Remember, in which she plays the writer George Sand:

Her performances always give off this perfect blend of of being composed, refined, and aloof while still being deeply passionate and I eat it up every time.

Linked gifset

A rare example of a WOC working in lead roles in this era (mostly because she worked very hard to pass as white and had to hide her south asian heritage sadly). She has this very regal vibe but also a simmering intensity—even holding her own as Cathy opposite Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff.

I need all the gothic fans to STAND UP for our cathy!!

She has such a unique face when it comes to old hollywood actresses - a lot of them start to melt together in my brain - but Merle has always stood out to me<3

Jean Seberg:

anyone who plays Joan of Arc is kind of hot by default tbh

she's gorgeous, she's cool, she has the original blond pixie cut

She donated a lot of her money to civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the black panther party as well as Native American school groups, as a result of this the fbi ran a smear campaign against her and a surveillance campaign which is thought to have led to her suicide tragically.

idk if this is propaganda but the COINTELPRO and the FBI are widely blamed for her death. If the FBI was after her for supporting the Black Panther Party you know she was good

[fdelopera]

America owes its independence to Haym Salomon, a Sephardic Jewish Patriot

A Jewish American Hero

by Yosef Kaufmann

October 17, 1781. An eerie silence takes hold over the battlefield outside Yorktown, Virginia. After weeks of non-stop artillery shells and rifle fire, the rhythmic pounding of a drum is all that is heard. Through the wispy smoke that floats above the battlefield, a British officer can be seen waving a white flag. General Cornwallis has surrendered Yorktown, ending the last major battle of the American Revolution. The surrender of Yorktown and the nearly 8,000 British troops convinced the British Parliament to start negotiating an end to the war. On September 3, 1783, the treaty of Paris was signed. The war was over.

If not for Haym Salomon, however, the decisive victory at Yorktown never would have happened.

Haym Salomon was born in Leszno, Poland, in 1740. In 1770, he was forced to leave Poland for London as a result of the Partition of Poland. Five years later, he left London for New York City, where he quickly established himself as a broker for international merchants.

Sympathetic to the Patriot cause, Haym joined the New York branch of the Sons of Liberty, a secret society that did what it could to undermine British interests in the colonies. In 1776, he was arrested by the British and charged with being a spy. He was pardoned on condition that he spend 18 months on a British ship serving as a translator for the Hessian mercenaries, as he was fluent in Polish, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Italian. During those 18 months, Haym used his position to help countless American prisoners escape. He also convinced many Hessian soldiers to abandon the British and join the American forces.

In 1778, he was arrested again and sentenced to death for his involvement in a plot to burn the British Royal fleet in the New York Harbour. He was sent to Provost to await execution, but he managed to bribe a guard and escape under the cover of darkness.

He fled New York, which was under the control of the British army, and moved to Philadelphia, the capital of the Revolution.

He borrowed money and started a business as a dealer of bills of exchange. His office was located near a coffee house frequented by the command of the American forces. He also became the agent to the French consul and the paymaster for the French forces in North America. Here he became friendly with Robert Morris, the newly appointed Superintendent of Finance for the 13 colonies. Records show that between 1781 and 1784, through both fundraising and personal loans, he was responsible for financing George Washington over $650,000, today worth approximately over $13 million.

By 1781, the American congress was practically broke. The huge cost of financing the war effort had taken its toll. In September of that year, George Washington decided to march on Yorktown to engage General Cornwallis. A huge French fleet was on its way from the West Indies under the command of Comte De Grasse. The fleet would only be able to stay until late October, so Washington was facing immense pressure to lead an attack on Yorktown before then.

After marching through Pennsylvania, with little in the way of food and supplies, Washington’s troops were on the verge of mutiny. They demanded a full month's pay in coins, not congressional paper money which was virtually worthless, or they would not continue their march. Washington wrote to Robert Morris saying he would need $20,000 to finance the campaign. Morris responded that there was simply no money or even credit left. Washington simply wrote, “Send for Haym Salomon.” Within days, Haym Salomon had raised the $20,000 needed for what proved to be the decisive victory of the Revolution.

Haym’s chessed continued after the war. Whenever he met someone who he felt had sacrificed during the war and needed financial assistance, he didn’t hesitate to do whatever he could to help.

He was also heavily involved in the Jewish community. He was a member of Congregation Mikveh Yisroel in Philadelphia, the fourth oldest synagogue in America, and he was responsible for the majority of the funds used to build the shul’s main building.

He also served as the treasurer to the Society for the Relief of Destitute Strangers, the first Jewish charitable organization in Philadelphia.

On January 8, 1785, Haym died suddenly at the age of 44. Due to the fact the government owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars, his family was left penniless.

His obituary in the Independent Gazetteer read:

Thursday, last, expired, after a lingering illness, Mr. Haym Salomon, an eminent broker of this city, was a native of Poland, and of the Hebrew nation. He was remarkable for his skill and integrity in his profession, and for his generous and humane deportment. His remains were yesterday deposited in the burial ground of the synagogue of this city.

Although there is little proof, many believe that when designing the American Great Seal, George Washington asked Salomon what he wanted as compensation for his generosity during the war. Salomon responded “I want nothing for myself, rather something for my people.” It is for this reason that the 13 stars are arranged in the shape of the Star of David.

[mrmousetolliver]

Constant Lambert (1927) painted by Christopher Wood. Christopher "Kit" Wood was born in 1901 in Liverpool, England. At the age of 19, he was invited by the prestigious French art collector Alphonse Kann to move to Paris and study painting at the Academie Julian. With Kanns introductions, Wood met Chilean diplomat Antonio de Gandarillas. Although Gandarillas was married and fourteen years Woods senior, they soon became a couple and began living together. As well as providing financial support, Gandarillas introduced Wood to Picasso, Georges Auric and Jean Cocteau, and to the use of opium. His relationship with Gandarillas lasted through out his life in spite of the fact that Wood had several romantic relations with both men and woman, and at one point was engaged to heiress Meraud Guinness.

Woods artistic style was post-impressionism and primitivism. He created several set designs for the Ballet Russes, although they weren't used. Throughout the 1920's he split his time between France and England. and had several successful shows. In April 1929, Wood held a solo exhibition at Tooth's Gallery in Bond Street, London where he met Lucy Wertheim, a British gallery owner,  at a private view. She purchased a picture and soon became one of his biggest supporters, buying up his work. In May 1930, Wood held an unsuccessful showing and started showing signs of mental illness, including threatening his own life. On August 21, 1930 Wood in preparation for a new show at Wertheims Gallery, traveled to Salisbury to have lunch with his mother and sister and to show them his new paintings. After the meeting, Christopher Wood threw himself under a train and died. While there is no specific reason why he killed himself at that time, speculation is that his opium addiction was causing paranoid delusions and he suspected he was being followed. In deference to his mothers wishes, his death was reported as an accident.

[toaarcan]

Rishi Sunak and the D-Day Disaster

Babes wake up, Rishi Sunak did a fuckup again!

Hokay, so, at time of writing, yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings during World War II. This is a big deal for a lot of reasons, D-Day is one of the most significant events in the largest and most destructive war humanity ever fought, and this is likely to be the last major anniversary that the surviving veterans will be alive and well enough to attend.

Political leaders from the world over made their way to the Normandy beaches for a commemoration. Biden, Trudeau, Macron, Scholz, and Zelenskyy were present. Keir Starmer was there, as were King Prince Charles and Prince William, but the UK government proper was represented by Rishi Sunak and David Hameron.

Until suddenly it wasn't!

Let's run down everything (that I'm aware of) that went wrong!

As part of the British event, army paratroopers landed on the beach... and then had to reconvene in a tent to get their credentials checked by the French authorities. Because Brexit happened and we don't have free movement any more! Pro-Brexit nimrods have, predictably, complained about getting exactly what they voted for.

Once each nation's part of the proceedings were done, they were to reconvene at Omaha Beach for an International commemoration. Speeches, medals being awarded, that sort of thing. Except... Rishi Sunak was not present.

No, see, Rishi "The Least Elected PM Ever" Sunak had stayed until the end of the British event and then promptly fucked off back to England, snubbing the leaders of America, France, Canada, Germany, and Ukraine and leaving everything in the hands of the Hameron, his also-unelected foreign secretary that last rubbed shoulders with any International politicians when he was fucking everything up in 2016. Also, in the hands of his main rival, Starmer (Okay calling Starmer and Sunak rivals is a bit unfair, it implies Sunak has a snowball's chance in hell, which he does not).

Naturally, people were pretty fuckin' steamed about this, and put Rishi on blast for showing enormous disrespect to... literally everyone involved. Especially since this is right on the heels of Sunak proposing that they bring back National Service to "fill young British people with loyalty and honour."

Don't worry it gets worse.

Naturally, there are a lot of journalists with cameras present, and this means that we get to see images like these:

Image Description: Left to right, David Cameron, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, and Joe Biden, standing in front of a partially cloud blue sky. Macron, Scholz, and Biden are lit by the sun, while Cameron appears to be in the shade.

Image Description: Keir Starmer sits, centrally-framed, among D-Day veterans in ceremonial dress uniforms. To the right of the frame sits Emmanuel Macron.

Image Description: Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Keir Starmer talking, with a photojournalist in the background aiming his camera at them. Both are smiling.

Quote Pippa Crerar, writing for the Guardian (You may remember her from that time she blew the lid off of Partygate!), Starmer is "already looking like a Prime Minister."

So this is really, really bad for Rishi. Britain has been keen to support Ukraine lately, and we've actually shipped a supply of our Challenger 2 tanks over to them for their use. The impact from this hasn't been as massive as you'd hope, largely because the British military has been absolutely gutted under the Tories, for reasons that I'm sure had absolutely nothing to do with all the financial support David Cameron got from Russians, but Britain has been trying to help.

Boris Johnson in particular liked to really stress the Ukraine point whenever he was losing control of the narrative, essentially making Ukraine's plight and his support for them a shield from criticism. And now, here's the leader of the opposition being photographed in a positive light with Zelenskyy. The optics are incredibly bad for Rishi.

But surely, Rishi had a reason why he had to zip back to British soil post haste? Maybe an emergency that he had to resolve?

No, he needed to record an interview with ITV, for his election campaign. That was it.

Well, interviews in election cycles become outdated pretty quickly. Normally a few days is enough to render them outdated. It must've been pretty urgent.

No, the interview is scheduled for release in six days' time.

That's an eternity in election season. There's a high chance that more than half of its content will be void by the time it airs.

As a reminder, we are four weeks from the big day. In fact, yesterday was exactly four weeks before election night. Time is very short.

Well, maybe this was the only time they could fit him in?

Nope, Paul Brand of ITV has confirmed that this was the date and time Rishi wanted, and they could've moved it to prevent scheduling conflicts!

So, how did a fuckup on such a grand magnitude happen? How did Rishi manage to create a clash between the 80th anniversary commemoration of an event with a specific date (6th June, 1944 is not hard to remember, my guy!) and the election that he called? Well that's very simple! He didn't want to be there at all.

Yes, it seems that Rishi had already told the French government a week ago that he wouldn't be attending at all. Someone seems to have convinced him that skipping the event entirely was a bad idea, but not enough for him to actually commit to it.

Image Description: A block of text reading "The French government was told a week ago that Rishi Sunak would not attend the D-Day 80th commemoration, Tory sources have confirmed. The message to Paris from his team was that he would be too busy campaigning in the general election to make the trip. The decision was reversed, and a short visit was the compromise, but it is extraordinary that an attendance by a Conservative PM, or any PM, was ever in doubt."

Rishi has denied this, however, so the whether it's true or Sunak has elected to not lie for once, well, that remains to be seen.

Quote John Healey, Labour's defence spokesperson, “Given that the prime minister has been campaigning on the idea young people should complete a year’s national service, what does it say that he appears to have been unable to complete a single afternoon of it?”

Conservative commentator Tim Montgomery called it "political malpractice."

And so, after thumbing his nose at half the world in order to pursue an already-foundering election campaign, Rishi Sunak decided that he needed to apologise. Via tweet.

It's been a very bad day for Rishi Sunak.

[fatehbaz]

all the time, gotta walk away, for a moment, take a break, infuriated, when reading about European implementation of forced labour, particularly and especially thinking about nineteenth and early twentieth centuries plantations, whether it's sugarcane or rubber or tea or banana, whether it's British plantations in Assam or Malaya; Belgian plantations in Congo; French plantations in West Africa; Dutch plantations in Java; de facto United States-controlled plantations in Haiti or Guatemala or Cuba or Colombia. and the story is always: "and then the government tried to find a way to reimpose slavery under a different name. and then the government destroyed vast regions of forest for monoculture plantations. and then the government forced thousands to become homeless and then criminalized poverty to force people into plantation work or prison labor." like the plantation industries are central (entangled with every commodity and every infrastructure project) and their directors are influencing each other despite spatial distance between London and the Caribbean and the Philippines.

and so the same few dozen administrators and companies and institutions keep making appearances everywhere, like they have outsized influence in history. like they are important nodes in a network. and they all cite each other, and write letters to each other, and send plant collection gifts to each other, and attend each other's lectures, and inspire other companies and colonial powers to adapt their policies/techniques.

but. important that we ought not characterize some systems and forces (surveillance apparatuses, industrial might, capitalism itself) as willful or always conscious. this is a critical addendum. a lot of those forces are self-perpetuating, or at least not, like, a sentient monster. we ought to avoid imagining a hypothetical boardroom full of be-suited businessmen smoking cigars and plotting schemes. this runs the risk of misunderstanding the forces that kill us, runs the risk of attributing qualities to those forces that they don't actually possess. but sometimes, in some cases, there really are, like, a few particular assholes with a disproportionate amount of influence making problems for everyone else.

not to over-simplify, but sometimes it's like the same prominent people, and a few key well-placed connections and enablers in research institutions or infrastructure companies. they're prison wardens and lietuenant governors and medical doctors and engineers and military commanders and botanists and bankers, and they all co-ordinate these multi-faceted plans to dispossess the locals, build the roads, occupy the local government, co-erce the labour, tend the plants, ship the products.

so you'll be reading the story of like a decade in British Singapore and you're like "oh, i bet that one ambitious British surgeon who is into 'economics' and is obsessed with tigers and has the big nutmeg garden in his backyard is gonna show up again" and sure enough he does. but also sometimes you're reading about another situation halfway across the planet and then they surprise you (because so many of them are wealthy and influential and friends with each other) and it'll be like "oh you're reading about a British officer displacing local people to construct a new building in Nigeria? surprise cameo! he just got a letter from the dude at the university back in London or the agriculturalist in Jamaica or the urban planner from Bombay, they all went to school together and they're also all investors in the same rubber plantation in Malaya". so you'll see repeated references to the same names like "the British governor of Bengal" or "[a financial institution or bank from Paris or New York City]" or "[a specific colonial doctor/laboratory that does unethical experiments or eugenics stuff]" or "lead tropical agriculture adviser to [major corporation]" or "the United Fruit Company" and it's like "not you again"

[nesiacha]

Frustration when I watched a television show about the Overseas Departments and Haiti during the period of the re-establishment of slavery and in general.

The siege of the Crête at Pierrot in 1802, by A. Raffet, engraving Hébert, 1839

Warning: There are many atrocities I will talk about when we dive into the details of the Haitian Revolution and torture in the reedit in the end . So, don’t read if you’re not up for it.

Completely by chance, I caught the second half of the show "Toussaint Louverture" (though I skipped some parts, I admit) presented by Stéphane in his show "Secrets d’Histoire," which I would qualify as mediocre. However, I was surprised to see that this show, which has always been lenient towards Bonaparte and Louis XVI, finally addresses the horrible re-establishment of slavery and recalls that the second and final abolition of slavery in 1848 was unsatisfactory because financial compensation was given to the colonists, but nothing to the former slaves. The one in 1794 seemed better. The participants of the show indeed say that it was a grave mistake to re-establish slavery, both morally and strategically regarding Haiti. I don't feel they explained how disastrous the consequences were, like how these laws removed brilliant officers from the military, such as Louis Delgrès (although mentioned in the show) or Alexandre Dumas (not to mention many former slaves who served in the military or fought like the group to which belonged Flore Blois Gaillard, who allied with the French revolutionaries against the British forces). This was a severe blow to the army, especially with the laws we could call racial against Black people (though I hesitate to use this term because I'm not sure if the word racist was defined as we understand it today). It was a great blunder—if Bonaparte hadn't had the (stupid) idea to re-establish slavery, perhaps the Overseas Departments wouldn't have fallen under British influence (as for Haiti, I think it would have become independent even without the re-establishment of slavery, and France and Haiti could have been solid allies, but it would have been much less violent with fewer French and Haitian losses). All these wars cost enormous amounts of money, and I believe he wouldn’t have sold Louisiana (frankly, he surely had good reasons, but can you imagine the French revolutionaries, especially those from 1792-1794, even in their worst moments, trying to sell a territory, at least the majority of the Convention? I can't). Moreover, there is no mention of the horrible deportations endured by Guadeloupeans and Haitians to Corsica, whether men, women, or children, under atrocious conditions. The most famous victim is the deputy Jean Louis Annecy (although very forgotten), who died on the island of Elba in 1807.

As usual, revolutionary women are forgotten. There is only a mention of Rosalie, alias Solitude, but there were many who participated in the fight, including Sanité Belair, who was executed by firing squad with her husband, Marie Claire Bonheur, the future Empress of Haiti, Victoria Montou, Dédée Bazile, Cécile Fatiman, Marthe Rose Toto from French Guiana, etc. The list is very long.

Finally, I don't like this whitewashing of Charles Leclerc (they do say that Rochambeau was terrible, at least, but since Leclerc was Bonaparte’s brother-in-law, he surely received some favorable treatment in this show). Here is an excerpt from the beginning of his horrors: "The majority of the deportees were concentrated in Corsica and the island of Elba, where they were used as labor for road construction and fortification restoration starting with the former Black soldiers" (text excerpt from "La guerre des Couleurs" of Pierre Branda and Thierry Lentz) . There was authorization to condemn Black people based on mere suspicion. Moreover, here is a letter Leclerc sent to his brother-in-law Napoleon Bonaparte: "Here is my opinion on this country. We must destroy all the Black people in the mountains, men and women, keep only the children under 12 years old, destroy half of those in the plains, and not leave a single colored man who has worn an epaulette in the colony." To think that I found the orders from the Convention in 1793-1794 frightening because they were ambiguous... Well, another reason why I find Bonaparte much more terrifying than them (already, the torture practiced by the police under Fouché in 1801 was appalling when he allowed it, the deportation without trial of many Jacobins, some of whom died, etc.), it reinforced my belief that he was much worse than the Committee of Public Safety in 1794, who nevertheless committed unforgivable acts in wartime under the infernal situation of internal-external civil war. Leclerc started the drownings in October 1802: it didn't matter whether the victims were civilians or soldiers; they were put on boats that were sunk. This strongly recalls the horrors committed by Carrier. According to Marlene L. Daut, the horrors were such that there were many desertions among French soldiers, which must not have been an easy situation for them because they could be shot for desertion and, even if they survived, forced to avoid returning home to avoid trouble with Napoleonic justice.

Leclerc (and by extension, Bonaparte) fell into the trap that some fighters, victims of an invasion or imminent invasion, have used throughout history, which seems quite old: pretending to ally with their adversaries to buy time, even if it means sacrificing their own to better fight the enemy again (and they certainly don't reach the only ones using this technique). This is what happened with Dessalines: the show doesn’t explain the armed resistance led by the Bélair couple against Leclerc, where they temporarily won victories. However, some believe this uprising might have been premature, although the insurgents weakened Leclerc with certain victories, and consequently, Dessalines allowed Charles and Sanité Bélair to be sacrificed. To be fair, the show I mentioned briefly explains that Henry Christophe and Dessalines did not betray Toussaint; they just wanted to buy time, but there is no mention of the Bélair couple. According to historians Pierre Branda and Thierry Lentz, Dessalines killed two birds with one stone by eliminating a potential rival in the person of Charles Bélair and to lull Leclerc's distrust to better attack when the time comes. In any case, by buying time, they were able to achieve better victories against Leclerc (who surely thought that by compromising Dessalines in the eyes of Black people, the insurgents would no longer dare to fight with him, but he was wrong) and later Rochambeau. Rochambeau continued by increasing atrocities, notably by releasing dogs on Black people and continuing to practice torture. There are allegations that Rochambeau locked Black people in holds and activated sulfur so they would die of asphyxiation. Thierry Lentz and Pierre Branda think it is not impossible that this happened. Bernard Gainot cites Jules Chanlatte from his work "Histoire de la catastrophe de Saint-Domingue" and published by a former sailor, Jean-Baptiste Bouvet de Cissé, in 1824: "Instead of valve boats, another type was invented, where victims of both sexes, piled on top of each other, expired suffocated by sulfur fumes." Whatever the case, the insurgents militarily defeated Rochambeau and the French troops, and their final victory was the Battle of Vertières in November 1803. Following this, Haiti's independence was proclaimed.

Where I totally disapprove is when, in order to try to limit the horrors that the Blacks people have suffered, they explain their reprisals, especially with the horrible massacre of the Whites people in 1804. I have already said in a post that massacre it is absolutely condemnable and atrocious . But imagine the horror of a little less than half of the Haitian population massacred in atrocious suffering, some betrayed by France while they had fought for them, others deported in atrocious conditions and some will never see their home again. I think that if their adversaries who oppressed them and those who applauded them had suffered a quarter of an eighth of the horrors that the Haitians suffered, the carnage would have been even more terrible. I do not want to exonerate the Haitians who took part in the massacre of 1804 from the responsibility but if Bonaparte had not approved such cruel orders (and he is the number 1 person responsible for this carnage), Whites people would not have been killed at least not in large numbers. The historian Thomas Madiou, said "Is it surprising that blacks and men of color used reprisals against whites?" And in any case nothing excuses the attitude of Bonaparte, Rochambeau or Leclerc. In my eyes they behaved like Turreau and Carrier. If we try to exonerate Bonaparte and his clique responsible for these massacres by highlighting the atrocities on the other side, it is a call to also exonerate horrible people like Carrier and Turreau by saying that the Vendéens committed massacre too.

In addition, the show ignored the many Haitians who protected white people from this massacre (Including Marie Claire Bonheur, wife of Dessalines, who nevertheless ordered the massacre I mentioned here: https://www.tumblr.com/nesiacha/758334606594523136/166-years-ago-empress-marie-claire-bonheur-of?source=share) and didn't said that the Polish legionnaires who were sent by Bonaparte to repress them were touched by the horrors that the Blacks suffered and many of them deserted to fight alongside the former slaves (as a form of recognition, the survivors were given Haitian nationality) were spared just like the Germans who had not participated in the slave trade ( but on the second point maybe I am wrong). For my part Rochambeau, Leclerc, Carrier and Turreau are to be put in the same bag concerning their atrocities when they were sent on a mission. Too bad Turreau and Rochambeau did not pay for their atrocities (some say that the fact that Leclerc died of yellow fever is enough karma and Carrier was guillotined and I do not pity him at all)

Finally, this isn't in the show, but I don't like when people say that Bonaparte was "a man of his time" to excuse his actions regarding slavery. No, he reinstated it, which is even worse. Sonthonax, Abbé Grégoire, Jean-Paul Marat, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, Olympe de Gouges, and many others were also from the same era as Bonaparte and were opposed to slavery. The re-establishment of slavery shocked many French people, and a white man named Monnereau, under the orders of Delgrès, was hanged in Guadeloupe because he rose up against the re-establishment of slavery and drafted Louis Delgrès' last manifesto. While Bonaparte was reinstating slavery, a white man gave his life for the fight against it (and there must have been many examples like Monnereau). So, this argument to whitewash Napoleon doesn't hold up.

P.S.: I first found the information about asphyxiation from Claude Ribbe. However, even as a convinced, even a person like me petty, anti-Napoleon person ( and a bad faith person I admit it), I find him not very credible. Comparing Napoleon to Hitler is one of the most absurd things I ever heard. That's why I'm more cautious about this statement.

My sources for this post are: Bernard Gainot Pierre Branda, Thierry Lentz, "La guerre des couleurs"

[whencyclopedia]

American Revolution

The American Revolution (1765-1789) was a period of political upheaval in the Thirteen Colonies of British North America. Initially a protest over parliamentary taxes, it blossomed into a rebellion and led, ultimately, to the birth of the United States. Rooted in the ideas of the Enlightenment, the Revolution played an important role in the emergence of modern Western democracies.

Origins: Parliament & the American Identity

In February 1763, the Seven Years' War – or the French and Indian War as the North American theater was called – came to an end. As part of the peace agreement, the vanquished Kingdom of France ceded its colony of New France (Canada) as well as all its colonial territory east of the Mississippi River to its victorious rival, Great Britain. While this left Britain as the dominant colonial power in North America, this newfound supremacy came at a cost, namely a massive war debt. To offset the debt, the British Parliament decided to levy new taxes on the Thirteen Colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America. Much of the war had been fought defending these colonies, after all, and Parliament decided that the colonists should help shoulder the empire's financial burden.

Prior to this decision, Parliament had adhered to an unofficial policy of 'salutary neglect' when dealing with the American colonies. This meant that, despite their royal governors, the colonies were largely left to manage their own affairs, with colonial legislatures overseeing governance and taxation. The influence of these legislatures often equaled if not eclipsed the power of the colony's royally appointed governor. Due to differing foundational and developmental circumstances, each colony maintained its own identity – the Puritan society of New England, the Dutch origins of New York, and the tobacco economy of Virginia, for example, all influenced the formation of their colonial identities. Despite viewing themselves as separate from one another, the colonies were loosely bound by their shared ties to Britain and had united in common defense multiple times during the last century of colonial wars.

At the same time, the American colonists considered themselves Britons, and proudly so. After the Glorious Revolution of 1689, and the constitutional reforms that went with it, the British were viewed as the freest people in the world; they were guaranteed a right to representative government (Parliament) as well as the right to self-taxation. The colonists believed that these 'rights of Englishmen' extended to them, as befitting of their English blood and allegiance to the English king; indeed, many of these rights were echoed in the colonies' own charters. The idea that Parliament could directly tax the colonies, therefore, went against this notion; since no Americans were represented in Parliament, Parliament had no constitutional authority to tax them (i.e. taxation without representation). Parliament, of course, disagreed, arguing that the Americans were virtually represented, as was the case with the thousands of Englishmen who owned no property and could not vote. It was this fundamental disagreement over the Americans' rights and liberties – expressed in the guise of taxation – that lay at the heart of the American Revolution and the birth of the United States.

Continue reading...

[communist-manifesto-daily]

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - Part 10

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To return to our British bourgeois. The French Revolution gave him a splendid opportunity, with the help of the Continental monarchies, to destroy French maritime commerce, to annex French colonies, and to crush the last French pretensions to maritime rivalry. That was one reason why he fought it. Another was that the ways of this revolution went very much against his grain. Not only its "execrable" terrorism, but the very attempt to carry bourgeois rule to extremes. What should the British bourgeois do without his aristocracy, that taught him manners, such as they were, and invented fashions for him – that furnished officers for the army, which kept order at home, and the navy, which conquered colonial possessions and new markets aboard? There was, indeed, a progressive minority of the bourgeoisie, that minority whose interests were not so well attended to under the compromise; this section, composed chiefly of the less wealthy middle-class, did sympathize with the Revolution, but it was powerless in Parliament.

Thus, if materialism became the creed of the French Revolution, the God-fearing English bourgeois held all the faster to his religion. Had not the reign of terror in Paris proved what was the upshot, if the religious instincts of the masses were lost? The more materialism spread from France to neighboring countries, and was reinforced by similar doctrinal currents, notably by German philosophy, the more, in fact, materialism and free thought generally became, on the Continent, the necessary qualifications of a cultivated man, the more stubbornly the English middle-class stuck to its manifold religious creeds. These creeds might differ from one another, but they were, all of them, distinctly religious, Christian creeds.

While the Revolution ensured the political triumph of the bourgeoisie in France, in England Watt, Arkwright, Cartwright, and others, initiated an industrial revolution, which completely shifted the centre of gravity of economic power. The wealth of the bourgeoisie increased considerably faster than that of the landed aristocracy. Within the bourgeoisie itself, the financial aristocracy, the bankers, etc., were more and more pushed into the background by the manufacturers. The compromise of 1689, even after the gradual changes it had undergone in favor of the bourgeoisie, no longer corresponded to the relative position of the parties to it. The character of these parties, too, had changed; the bourgeoisie of 1830 was very different from that of the preceding century. The political power still left to the aristocracy, and used by them to resist the pretensions of the new industrial bourgeoisie, became incompatible with the new economic interests. A fresh struggle with the aristocracy was necessary; it could end only in a victory of the new economic power. First, the Reform Act was pushed through, in spite of all resistance, under the impulse of the French Revolution of 1830. It gave to the bourgeoisie a recognized and powerful place in Parliament. Then the Repeal of the Corn Laws [a move toward free- trade], which settled, once and for all, the supremacy of the bourgeoisie, and especially of its most active portion, the manufacturers, over the landed aristocracy. This was the greatest victory of the bourgeoisie; it was, however, also the last it gained in its own exclusive interest. Whatever triumphs it obtained later on, it had to share with a new social power – first its ally, but soon its rival.

The industrial revolution had created a class of large manufacturing capitalists, but also a class – and a far more numerous one – of manufacturing work-people. This class gradually increased in numbers, in proportion as the industrial revolution seized upon one branch of manufacture after another, and in the same proportion it increased its power. This power it proved as early as 1824, by forcing a reluctant Parliament to repeal the acts forbidding combinations of workmen. During the Reform agitation, the workingmen constituted the Radical wing of the Reform party; the Act of 1832 having excluded them from the suffrage, the formulated their demands in the People's Charter, and constituted themselves, in opposition to the great bourgeois Anti-Corn Law party, into an independent party, the Chartists, the first working-men's party of modern times.

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[stylesnews]

FLORENCE, Italy – As Steven Stokey-Daley’s fall show in Florence during Pitti Uomo wrapped, the British designer, the 2022 recipient of the LVMH Prize for Young Designers, revealed longtime fan Harry Styles is acquiring a minority stake in the company.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Harry and I have a shared vision for the future of S.S. Daley and we look forward to this new chapter together as we focus on brand longevity and scaling the business into a modern British heritage house,” the designer, 26, said.

The pair was introduced by Styles’ stylist Harry Lambert, who masterminded the wardrobe for the artist’s “Golden” music video, outfitting him in Stokey-Daley’s graduate collection.

The investment is geared at building S.S. Daley’s direct-to-consumer business and forge ahead with plans for a “sustainable and long-term expansion,” the company said in a statement.

After graduating from the University of Westminster, Stokey-Daley made his London Fashion Week debut in September 2021 supported by the National Youth Theatre artistic director Paul Roseby, staging a four-part performance by members of the theater, riffing on British tailoring and tackling such topics as social class, inequality, school life, sexual awakening and homosexuality.

That same year, the S.S. Daley designer was among the recipients of the British Fashion Council’s Newgen initiative and was awarded again by the British fashion governing body the following year, with the BFC Foundation Awards.

The designer’s gender-fluid take on the uniforms of the British upper classes, such as wide-leg trousers, argyle-knit wool vests and embroidered shirts, appeals to a Gen-Z sensibility, and a growing female customer base. The brand is currently stocked in a handful of retailers, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Dover Street Market, Matchesfashion, Bergdorf Goodman, 10 Corso Como Seoul and I.T Store.

Attending the S.S. Daley show in Florence, Sir Paul Smith praised Stokey-Daley and said: “I think that the ideal thing [for him] would be to try and work in parallel with a commercial company that help him develop as a commercial designer, as well as creative designer. And of course, that’s what everybody dreams of. He has the balance between commerciality and creativity.”

“I think [his designs] might have had similarities in my earlier [career]… We are in 60-something countries now. So you have to be a lot more aware of commerciality and things that work for the shops especially right now because the business and around the world is so difficult for people,” Smith added.

Styles’ investment falls in line with a growing number of celebrities becoming brand shareholders. They include, among others, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon who invested in Spanx; Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas in skiwear maker Perfect Moment; Beyoncé, Jessica Alba and Rihanna in French accessories firm Destree; Mila Kunis, Cameron Diaz and Gabrielle Union in Autumn Adeigbo, and Mark Wahlberg in Italian sneaker brand P448.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

How do you feel about nation jobs or finances in your universe? Like are modern Matt or Alfred on government payroll even if they don’t do anything? I know you’re mentioned that Alfred is better at managing his money than Matt, is he rich??

Sorry I’m not phrasing this very well 😅

This is somewhat esoteric even for me, but I tied their abilities with money to their economic histories.

Alfred was born looking pretty pathetic next to the Spanish possessions in Mexico and South America or even British holdings in the Caribbean but, in short order, made up a significant percentage of the ships, people, and wealth of the British Empire. He became that on what was primarily the efforts of private enterprise. Alfred grows up understanding he is valuable; he represents value, and his choices create value. He's easy to love because he's a goddamn cash cow for Arthur until the Seven Years War when Britain spent a shit ton and wanted the Yanks to pay their share, and we threw a bitch fit and declared independence.

Matt, however, has the French bitching about what a money hole he is from about 20 minutes after he comes into being. The Basque, by far, made the most money initially with their fishing and whaling in the east, following what was reasonably similar to the Viking routes into Newfoundland. The fur trade that drove French settlement faced collapse about a half dozen times in his childhood, and besides a short binge economy for Ginseng and its brief boom in China, his entire existence was just fur. Dead beavers and the black market. That's it.

While the US was building ships, growing cash crops, running a fur trade economy, engaging in fishing, rope making, pitch collection, barrel making and everything and anything else, in the Caribbean, they had 90+ control over sugar production and trade routes. Canada had 10% of the population and thus 10% of the market power. We didn't do shit except freeze, fire at the British, commit war crimes against the New Englanders, ditch the farms and run off to the west to make families with indigenous women and run furs up the rivers to the point that France tried to make it illegal for people to leave the settlements of Quebec City and Montreal without permission.

So from a relatively early point, Alfred is very smart with his investments, and he's been making his investments since the early 19th century, so there's a significant but often catastrophically destroyed habit of investing. When he was younger and incredibly newly independent, he got fleeced a few times, but he's called smart and secure, especially since the 1929 crash. It's not remarkably large amounts of money because he'll never completely trust the government, and he doesn't want to attract attention or pay massive amounts of taxes, so he's very well diversified. But he's certainly not poor. All his more expensive hobbies come from a particular office in the state department that Alfred sometimes cooperates with and sometimes doesn't, depending on how anti-establishment he and the public feel.

As for Matt, having spent a lot longer as a colonial subject, it's not that he's entirely shit with money but what he knew how to do. The heart of the empire was the financial hub and was outside his control long after even the Confederation in the 1860s. The money situation has been a nightmare since the earliest days of the French Regime using playing cards to pay people. Colonial America had some similar issues. The whole concept of the US dollar originated in the 1690 invasion of Quebec when the Massachusetts Bay Colony printed its own money to fund the expedition, but Alexander Hamilton did some flash economic magic for the US in this department in the 1790s, so it got its shit together long before Canada. Matt knows what he needs to know. He was stationed in various Canadian ports, keeping an eye on his father's investments, not his own.

So, in the modern day, Alfred reads his bank statements every month, keeps track of his subscriptions and bills, and probably has an accountant. Matt is more aware of Alfred's money habits than his own. Because he's over here just kind of vaguely wondering if his debit card will work because my man cannot make heads or tails of his economy (no, seriously, Canadian economists have no idea how Canada's own shit works. Sometimes it's pretty fascinating, there's often no real consensus like the US academic economist have.) And international investors in Canada are always freaking out because the Canadian economy is always getting its shit rocked by the US economy. It's hilarious to think of people in Matt's life frustratedly trying to figure out where and what his money's doing. If their health is tied to their economies, Matt's in pretty good shape, thanks to close ties to the US, but he's randomly dying reasonably often because the US economy's tiny little ripples will randomly tear him apart. It's pretty funny (laughs so I don't sob in the Canadian job market.)

And that's pretty fitting, considering that most Canadian economic policy is boiled down to 'hope the Americans are feeling cooperative next time NAFTA comes up for debate.'

[scotianostra]

Robert Edmond Grant was born on November 11th 1793 in Argyll Square in Edinburgh, which was swept away to create Chambers Street.

Originating from Elgin, the Grant family moved to Edinburgh, where Robert’s father, Alexander was an accountant and a writer to the signet , his wife Jane gave birth to 14 children in all, although not all lived to adulthood, twelve brothers and two sisters, Robert being the seventh son, and the longest surviving of them all.

Between 1803 and 1808 he was a pupil at the High School, Edinburgh, after leaving which he entered the University of that city as a medical student, attending the lectures of eminent names like Monro, Hope, Gregory, Duncan, and others. He took his doctor's degree in 1814, for five years after which he devoted his time to travelling on the Continent, visiting Paris, Rome, Florence, as well as Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria, as was the norm with those who could afford it back then.

In 1822 he settled back in Edinburgh, and from then till 1828 contributed several zoological papers to different Scotch scientific societies and journals on subjects way over my head and probably far to boring to list in this wee post, I will add a link where brainboxes can peruse the full details.

Despite his family background, Grant suffered financial hardship in his adult life and as a result spent the majority of his time lecturing or preparing for lectures meaning that the time he could spend on research and publications was severely limited. Despite Grant’s hard working ethos, generosity and dedication to his students, the most famous of whom was the young Charles Darwin, Grants teachings are said to have given Darwin the theoretical framework sparking his interests and was a big influence on his student.

Grant studied marine life around the Firth of Forth, collecting specimens around the shores near a house he took at Prestonpans as well as from fishing boats, and becoming an expert on the biology of sponges and sea-slugs. Charles Darwin would help him collect the specimens down in East Lothian.

Grant then became Professor of Comparative Anatomy at University College London, a post he held from 1827 until his death in 1874. Purportedly Robert E Grant did not miss a single lecture within his 47 year service at the university. Grant's pay was £39 per annum.

He was involved in radical and democratic causes, campaigning for a new Zoological Society museum run professionally rather than by aristocratic amateurs; and tried to turn the British Museum into a research institution run along French lines. He was opposed by Tories who attacked him for supporting "the reptile press" and its "blasphemous derision of the truths of Christianity"

Darwin visited Grant in 1831 to get advice on storing specimens immediately before setting out on the Voyage of the Beagle. When Darwin returned from his voyage, Grant was one of those to offer to examine his specimens, but was turned down: they do not seem to have had further contact.

Grant died at home at 2 Euston Grove, Euston Square, London on August 23rd 1874, he is buried in Highgate Cemetery.

There’s a wee bit more detail on Grant here

[cpvnksabm]

anyway here's some fun facts about the choir in my aussie rtc au because i am cringe and i am free

Ocean

genuinely believes "cunt" is a horribly vulgar term despite having lived here her whole life. says "australian" instead of "aussie". gets snooty when people shorten australia to 'straya. generally trying very hard to pretend she isn't here

got told she had a british accent as a kid and she latched onto that REALLY hard because she thinks it's more "proper" english. in actuality she sounds slightly british compared to other aussies but if she talks to anyone outside of australia they will undoubtedly say she has an aussie accent.

as i've said before i believe she is "the kind of povvo cunt who would call her mates dolebludgers despite being on centrelink herself" however i have been told that this sentence is nonsense to non-aussies without a translation.

has occasionally gotten sunburned during winter. tries to go outside during summer anyway. this usually ends badly for her

Noel

works at what i believe to be the shittiest taco bell in sydney. i've never eaten taco bell myself, but i've walked past this place a couple of times, and it looks like it's probably the worst taco bell in sydney.

has absolutely no sense of aussie patriotism. as far as he's concerned fuck this country fuck the flag and fuck the wallabies too

his father, who is a serial child abandoner, fucked off to new zealand when noel was 13. he went through a phase of very seriously romanticising waiting until he was 14 years and 9 months old, so that he could get a job and be in less shit financially. he compared it to the part in the hunger games where katniss is waiting to be old enough to enter her name in the reaping more times to take out tessarae. in actuality the "you have to be 14 years and 9 months old to get a job" thing is just a myth that a lot of aussies believe for no real reason so he could have started working much earlier than he actually did. also it didnt really help financially because employees here literally dont get paid minimum wage until theyre 21 and at 14 you get like way less than half of minimum wage

saving up to move to france as per canon. his french is absolute dogshit and i'm not convinced he'd survive in europe. i'm also not convinced he's successfully saving money he's still years away from being able to earn minimum wage

genuinely does not really believe that 30 degrees celsius is even warm. 35 degrees is the point at which he will consider taking off his jacket. he does not own one single pair of shorts. ocean's proudest moment is the time she caught a screenshot of her lock screen having a notification from noel, complaining about it being too hot for the first time in his goddamn life, and then 3 minutes later a notification from a news app, reporting on record breaking high temperatures

misha

willing to second noel's statement regarding this country, the flag, and the wallabies too

has actually seen an impressive amount of sydney (and the surrounding area) compared to most of the choir who never go anywhere or do anything. this is because whenever he doesn't want to be somewhere (often) he will just get on a train and go wherever the fuck. he's like a "tom scott introducing places" compilation video bc he's always just texting the groupchat to say he's In A Location and when people ask what he's doing there he doesn't know. he'll get back to you when he finds a part of sydney/nsw that he thinks doesn't suck.

he has his sleeves rolled up all the time because he thinks it makes him look tough and gangsta, but more importantly, because he thinks 30 degrees celsius is "too hot".

i hate to say this but he'd probably be a fucking eshay

in summer he constantly takes photos of regular everyday items to send to talia with the caption "did you know this can melt".

i've never been in a house that had a basement so he doesnt have one. his adoptive parents still ignore him and expect him to Stay Out Of Their Sight, but like, he just has way less space in which he could do so. this is definitely part of why he's so often on a train to bumfuck nowhere to do fuck all rather than stay at home.

ricky

straight up does not like it here tbh this place is insanely ableist

so chronically online (and just generally isolated) that once he starts interacting with the choir he has to google the aussie slang they use regularly. his sleep schedule is Bad so he mainly interacts with americans.

refers to mcdonalds as "maccas" not because it's easier for him to call it that, but because it pisses off the americans in his discord servers

perpetually fighting tooth and nail for the school & the government to recognise that he is Really Disabled. he has several diagnoses on record. he can't walk unassisted. come on this is ridiculous.

big fan of "aussie cuisine" specifically because he cannot cook. fairy bread is a meal if you use your imagination.

penny

the aussie equivalent of Elysium is in katoomba or somewhere similar, in the blue mountains. this should explain most of why she's so insane i think.

she probably still lives in the blue mountains but closer to sydney, or maybe in one of the parts of sydney that we all secretly think of as being Basically Not Even Sydney (sorry emu plains)

since high school starts in year 7 here, ezra 100% goes to the same school as her (maybe he already did in canon tbh, i feel like it was kind of unclear if uranium city had a middle school or if it was one of those towns so small that st cassians would be a k-12 school)

ezra and penny usually avoid each other like the plague at school (because having siblings is #cringe) but occasionally they will pass each other in the school hallways, reference some utterly incomprehensible inside joke, exchange some bizarre assortment of objects that they needed to borrow from each other, and then leave and go back to avoiding each other

because nobody ever goes to their house (because theyre both loners/outcasts and also because they live in the middle of fucking nowhere and nobody wants to travel that far), the fact that they're siblings is Deep Lore that you only find out once you're really close to them. it was a rumour once but most people brushed it off because it seemed too unbelievable

#1 aussie animal apologist

really does not understand noel & misha's beef with the wallabies. she gets stressed every time they mention it.

constance

frequently goes for walks alone at night, often in notoriously "dodgy" areas. she hangs out at parks and goes on the swing. she's honestly more scared of the bats than of other people. why are there so many fucking bats here

pretends dropbears are real

hates the weather here. so much. all the time. if she complains about the cold then she is inevitably smugly reminded that in other places it gets cold enough to snow, so this is just chilly. if she complains about the heat then she is inevitably smugly reminded that it's not record-breaking hot. if it is record-breaking hot then she still can't complain because everyone is focused on being surprised that noel finally noticed it was hot. she suffers like jesus here.

has never actually seen snow in person. really wants to. at some point penny probably takes her down to the mountains in winter to see it and it doesn't really live up to the hype.

would probably super enjoy a "let's get on a train and go Wherever The Fuck to do Fuck All" trip with misha but people (ocean) always expect her to justify why she's going anywhere. secretly really enjoys whenever something inconvenient happens requiring her to travel far

i've never seen bluey but i feel like she'd be one of those people that watches it as an adult

[bomberqueen17]

Liveblogging the Aubreyad: Book 4, The Mauritius Command (pt 1)

So at the end of the last book, Jack closes things out by looking forward to the paradise he will finally reach when he gets home with his financial solvency and his soon-to-be wife, and in typical unromantic fashion, the next book opens with a lovingly detailed description of just how not-paradise the situation actually is.

Some time has elapsed. Jack is married, owns a romantical little cottage with a not very thriving kitchen garden, and has twin daughters. His mother-in-law has also bankrupted herself and now lives with them, as does his niece Cecelia, since his wife's sister (also Cecelia) cannot actually look after her child, since she was hastily married to a soldier who had, it is implied, knocked her up, and is off camp-following said soldier. Mrs. Williams in her greed also gambled away Sophie's dowry on the investment scheme that broke her, so Sophie is also broke. They are living on Jack's half-pay and have to be very frugal. Jack has not been able to get a ship and has been assigned instead to the unglamorous, not particularly remunerative Sea Fencibles, a kind of militia in fishing boats.

But, he is not under threat of arrest for debt, so at least technically he is doing better than he has been for the last two books.

And he is in tolerably cheerful spirits despite all of it, because after all, he does have his wife and his cottage, and his new habit of mathematics has extended to becoming quite a keen hand at astronomy, including grinding his own telescopes, and he has a little observatory in the yard that he built himself from copper salvaged from old ship hulls (which the dockyard let him have from pity).

He mostly uses this observatory to look at the ships in the harbor, as Stephen finds out when he shows up to visit.

But better things are coming, as Stephen's visit presages. Their first inkling is when a message arrives from Lady Clonfert, the wife of a fellow Naval captain, asking Jack if he can give her a lift to the Cape. Stephen is incredibly annoyed at this for some reason, while everyone else is baffled.

Stephen drags Jack outside to talk in private and goes off on a tirade about lack of discretion and how terrible it is from an intelligence perspective, and through this Jack gradually comes to understand that Stephen has managed, for intelligence reasons, to get Jack a ship in fact, and this fact makes Jack so irrepressibly happy despite the fact that he understands just why Stephen is angry and that Stephen is justified to be angry that Stephen eventually has to stop his tirade and be like.... now we have to wait out here until the official messenger arrives, and Jack is like why and Stephen is like because you are so obviously delighted that there is no way you can keep a secret about this, and jack is like... i can be quiet and stephen is like no. you cannot.

Sophie does not know about Stephen's role in intelligence, and cannot know. No one in the family can know. So they stay outside, huddled in Jack's observatory as it rains, until the messenger shows up with Jack's orders.

It's a complicated mission and Jack doesn't get to take any of his people. (He has had to dismiss Killick and Bonden; he couldn't afford to pay them as servants.) But he has command of HMS Boadicea, a 38-gun frigate, to repair to the Indian Ocean, there to command a squadron to resist four new French frigates that have been despatched to the Ile de France (Mauritius), and have been playing havoc with British commercial shipping in the area. It involves playing the role of a commodore, which is not a promotion for Jack but is a great deal of prestige and in fact should not come to one of his seniority except by Stephen's intervention-- because Stephen has learned that if he is to do intelligence work, he is much better off with Jack nearby, and intelligence work he has to do, and delicate stuff at that: they aim to take Mauritius and La Reunion away from the French, no small undertaking.

Jack needs to borrow money from Stephen to outfit himself for this voyage, which gives us this fantastic, extremely-typical line as he brings up the topic:

“Money, is it?" said Stephen, who had been thinking about lemurs.

Jack resolves to leave that very afternoon, and sail that night. Sophie is glad he has a ship but dismayed at the suddenness, and contrives to convince him to stay at home one more night. This becomes plot-significant later but as this is Stephen's POV it is glossed-over because he does not care what they get up to.

He gets to sea, and contrives to avoid giving Lady Clonfert a ride; she is very pretty, and he had noticed Sophie seemed a little jealous and uneasy, and besides it eventually comes out that he does not like Lord Clonfert for extremely good reasons, and he is uneasy about the whole thing.

He does not contrive to avoid the politico they must bring on board to be ready to become the governor of Mauritus if they succeed in taking it. He seems okayish, and Stephen likes him fine; his name is Farquhar and he has a background in law.

On the voyage down the Boadicea manages to take a prize, a French corvette that turns out to be the former British frigate Hyaena, and to also get salvage on the merchantman she had recently taken, a Guineaman, which Jack managed to delay long enough that 24h had elapsed so she was salvage instead of a rescue. So there's some money, but better still, he manages to send away the incompetent First Lieutenant he'd been saddled with as prize commander, and all the awkward buggers and hard cases as prize crews, and a really shitty midshipman to prize-command the recaptured merchant, and then on top of it he presses a bunch of right seamen out of the recaptured merchantman to replace them all with. So off he goes with a much, much better crew in his ship, for a very long voyage; right away he promotes the most deserving of his master's mates to acting lieutenant, another fellow like Tom Pullings with no powerful friends, who would never have got a step otherwise, thereby ensuring the man's lasting devotion and good service for life.

With his crew squared away, they spend the long voyage getting up to snuff on their sailing and gunnery. Jack also takes his newfound love of mathematics to the midshipmen's berth, educating them himself, and discovers that one of them, Dick Richardson (Spotted Dick because of his pimples, alas) is very mathematically gifted. This means Aubrey has to study even harder to stay ahead of him.

They finally arrive at Cape Town: he is under the authority of Admiral Bertie, and is to command, as a commodore, a squadron of assorted ships. Sirius, under a Captain Pym; Nereide under a Captain Corbett; the sloop Otter under Captain (master and commander, not a psot captain) Lord Clonfert; and finally an ancient and barely-seaworthy Raisonable as a flagship, a 64-gunner that can't actually do much.

(The subsequent plot of the novel takes a great deal from the real historical events of the Mauritius Campaign of 1809-11, so if one were inclined to look at maps it would likely be useful to start there.)

Ashore, Stephen meets the surgeon of the Otter, who passes out drunk into his arms. (The man, McAdam, is an old acquaintance, a specialist in diseases of the mind.) Trying to find any Otters to take him home, he runs into none other than Bonden. Bonden and Killick came down in the Nereide to try to catch up with Aubrey, hearing he was afloat again. But Stephen notices Bonden is moving stiffly, and is astonished to learn he was recently given the stunningly harsh punishment of fifty lashes, because a piece of brasswork wasn't shiny enough. Bonden, a steady and sober lifelong seaman, has never been flogged before in his life. He won't complain, but he does ask Stephen to ensure that Jack gets him and Killick as transfers, concerned that Corbett won't let them go as he's so short-handed. Nereide is on the brink of mutiny and everyone aboard who can do so deserts given any opportunity.

“What I mean is, that in the first place me and Killick and the rest want to get back to our own captain: and in the second, we want to get out before things turn nasty. And at the gait they are going now--well, I shouldn't give much for Captain Corbett's life, nor some of his officers, come an action, or even maybe a dirty night with no moon; and we want no part in it.”

As for the others-- Clonfert resents that Jack didn't bring his wife. Clonfert also is apparently aware that he behaved very, very shabbily to Jack when they were both in the Andromeda, letting Jack do all the hard dangerous work of a cutting-out expedition and then taking credit afterwards himself; Jack remembers the incident but does not hold a grudge and assumes he simply didn't know what really happened, but Clonfert, it is clear, very much knows he behaved badly and expects Jack to resent it, having underestimated just how good-natured Jack really is. And he resents that Jack has since that time advanced more in his career, Clonfert having lost seniority in a disciplinary situation of some kind. But at least Clonfert's ship is a reasonably happy one and his people like him and will work for him.

Pym is good-natured but not very bright and his ship is in poor condition through sheer age and use; he is willing, but there's not a lot Sirius can do.

They put to sea, under orders to find and destroy the French frigates. Meanwhile Stephen goes to La Reunion to liase with agents there. From Stephen's intelligence they discern that if they collaborate with the British soldiers stationed on Rodriguez, they could assault La Reunion and take its batteries, and then take the ships in its harbor St. Paul, which include two recently-captured British Indiamen. So they go to Rodriguez to persuade the Lt. Col. commanding the soldiers of the possiblity of executing this plan. Lt. Col. Keating is in fact admirably keen to join in with this daring plan, and they immediately begin to make arrangements.

Clonfert and Corbett have an ugly public disagreement over where the best landing-place on La Reunion is, both of them having extensive local knowledge. Jack checks Clonfert over it-- it's unprofessional to argue like that and Corbett is the senior officer-- and shortly thereafter Stephen is called in to consult with Otter's eccentric surgeon McAdam. Clonfert has an inexplicable, painful recurring condition where he has fits, possibly psychosomatic but severe regardless, and he is taken by one after having been checked by Aubrey. McAdam mentions that Clonfert is mildly obsessed with Aubrey and very frequently discusses him.

In the end it is decided to use Corbett's landing place for the soldiers, so all the soldiers crowd onto Nereiad and the squadron sets off. They arrive in two days. Clonfert volunteers to lead the detachment of seamen, collected from all the ships to pad out the numbers of soldiers and Marines.

The Nereiad goes alone, while the rest of the squadron goes around to the island's main harbor slowly. Jack finds it very hard to give orders but not participate. It is his first taste of admiral-like responsibility and he does not care for it.

Stephen was already up, sitting there clean, shaven and respectably dressed under the swinging lamp. He said, "There is the strange look about you, brother?" "A strange feeling, too," said Jack. "Do you know, Stephen, that in about one hour's time the dust will begin to fly, and what I shall do is just lie there in the road and give orders while the other men do the work? It has never happened to me before, and I don't relish it, I find. Though to be sure, Sophie would approve." "She would also beg you to drink your coffee while it is hot: and she would be in the right of it. There are few things more discouraging to the mind that likes to believe it is master in its own house, than the unquestionable effect of a full belly. Allow me to pour you a cup.”

The landing parties do their work, take first one battery, then the next, then the French ships in the harbor (including two captured British Indiamen) begin to fire on the Englishmen ashore, but the English turn one of the batteries they have taken on them, and then the second, the Union Jack running up above the taken batteries. The British ships at sea cannot fire at the French, for fear of hitting their own people, so the squadron takes fire to which it cannot reply.

But the landing parties ashore have largely taken the town, and now it is only the French ships still firing. The British squadron stand in and engage them, and the ships surrender. Success: they have taken the harbor. They don't expect to hold it, not for long anyway, but the ships in the harbor are all theirs now, and they can destroy all the military stores and government records at their leisure.

Clonfert has done well but Jack is slightly worried that the man's motives are to one-up Corbett rather than get the job done in the most effective way. They secure the town, and Clonfert overzealously burns some things that turn out to have been valuable cargo from the Indiamen, which upsets him horribly.

But the French column enroute to retake the harbor does not arrive. The French commander has committed suicide, the rest do not wish to fight. St. Paul is safe for now.

Jack rewards Corbett, giving him the French frigate they captured to sail back to the Cape with their despatches, and then in turn promotes Clonfert to post captain from commander, and gives him Nereide, and gives Clonfert's first lieutenant the Otter. Clonfert is weirdly conflicted at having been made post by Aubrey, since he was once senior to him and still has this apparent one-sided rivalry going in his mind, of which Jack remains completely unaware.

“He is an odd fish, Clonfert," said Jack to Stephen, between two peaceful duets. "You might almost think I had done him an injury, giving him his step." "You did so advisedly, not from any sudden whim? It is the real expression of your sense of his deserts, and not an alms? He should in fact be made a post-captain?" "Why," said Jack, "it is rather a case of faute de mieux, as you would say. I should not like to have to rely upon him at all times; but one of them had to go, and he is a better captain than Corbett.”

Corbett's disaffected crew is reorganized into other ships, and Jack now no longer has to worry about a mutiny in his squadron; the entire thing was just to both do the right thing by his subordinates and also get Corbett out of the unhappy Nereiad.

Now what is needed is more soldiers for another decisive stroke to secure the whole island, but back at the Cape the higher command of soldiers will not stir without orders from on high, and there are no communications from on high. So they will not be able to make good their advantages.

I'll pause here, somehow this has gotten long. Well, I'm trying to write it while traveling and it turns out this takes concentration. But part 2 is coming and it has the arrival of a beloved recurring character so brace yourself.

[reincrimination]

stay the course: ch. 1 | buddie

9-1-1 | eddie diaz x evan buckley

a buddie equestrian AU

cw: none!

you are here! -> chapter 2

read on archive of our own!

“That was Taylor Kelly and Smile for the Camera given the all-clear by the vets,” says the announcer, a thick British accent immediately distinguishable. “Next up is- well, I’d say infamous, but that would imply that people like him. Next up is Evan Buckley- or Buck, as he requests we all call him- and his French-bred mount Saint Francis.” Eddie finally feels a little less stranded when he sees the similarly-young face of- uh, Buck?- jog down the path. Clad in gray plaid pants and a black sweater, the young man looks like a panther next to his tall, lanky white horse. The black of the horse’s bridle is the only thing that matches Buck, the rest a stark contrast. Buck may be under-dressed by comparison to the other riders, but the gleaming white-grey of his horse’s coat is near blinding. Its’ mane is tacked up into bobbles atop its neck, so tight they look like they hurt, and its tail is whiter than chalk and flouncing like a waterfall as they parade down the path. Eddie knows nothing about horses but he can tell that this is a proud one by the way he picks up his knees and flags his tail at the end of his jog.

Eddie knows why his father wanted to get into the equestrian world- fame. Everything Ramon Diaz does is for fame, after all, but Eddie had clearly missed the memo on just how pompous the higher levels of the equestrian world was. Though, Eddie had missed the memo on just about everything equestrian, not even having ever seen a horse beyond trips to the racetrack with his father in years prior. His father’s tastes had evolved from betting on racehorses, and now, a decade and Eddie’s own failed marriage later, he’s accompanying his father on a cross-continential trip to the 2024 Badminton Horse Trials in London, England.

Although the one-on-one time with his father should be enough to make Eddie want to pull his hair out (but not too much, lest the press catch wind of a bald spot), he would have been ridiculous to pass up an all-expenses paid trip to the Badminton trials as a VIP spectator. At least, that’s what he tells himself, which is easier than admitting the fact that he really did not have a choice in whether or not he attended.

Since his divorce, he had moved back in with his family for the sake of his son, Chris, who he has full custody of. As much as he loves his son, he can’t raise him on his own, especially since he had been working as a firefighter prior to the divorce. He had carved out a life for himself, far away from his father, where the only things that mattered were his son, his wife, and his job, in that order, too. However, with Shannon in the wind, Eddie had to put his own wants on hold (as always) and realize that being a single father in Los Angeles with a special needs son was not plausible, even on a firefighter’s not-scanty salary.

So, he’d eaten his pride and obliged his father’s request for him and Christopher to move back in with their family in El Paso, Texas. It had only been a few weeks since they’d been back, and Eddie was- well, he wasn’t really sure what was next. His father was supporting him and Chris financially, so he had time to figure out what he wanted to do. However, that meant he owed a substantial debt to his father- figuratively, of course, as he could never financially repay any sum considering he is now unemployed- and so what his father says tends to go, now. That’s how Eddie had found himself saying farewell to Christopher, set up for a week at his Abuela’s house, and getting on a flight to London.

Regardless, he had touched down in London some hours ago, and now he is nursing an icy cold mixed drink in one hand while he stares down a packed dirt fence lined with white fences and elaborate floral arrangements. On one side, the sandy expense of the show jumping arena stretches, untrodden thus far and glistening in the rare England sunlight. On the other side of the path, rows of spectators and press line the plastic blue chairs for as far as Eddie can see.

A perk of his father’s status as an owner of one of the competing horses means that Eddie, too, is afforded VIP status, and as such, stands just behind one of those white fences, with an uninterrupted view of the dirt path. Towards the other set of spectator bleachers, the announcer’s box and the in-gate lie, whereabouts tens of pairs of horses and handlers are milling.

Now, if Eddie had thought his father wearing a three-piece name-brand suit to the- what’s it called again? The inspection?- was excessive, then he really needed to keep his mouth shut about the others here. There was not a pair of were in sight, and each handler’s outfit was at least as expensive as their horse, and they are not cheap horses. 

The hum of conversation is loud, the excitable energy high in the air as the announcer begins his commentary of what he began to call “the jog”. 

Eddie quickly realizes why it is called “the jog” when a horse-and-handler pair does just that, along the entire length of the packed dirt track, leaving the first of at least fifty pairs of hoofprints that the soil would see today.

Eddie barely knows where to look, so far out of his depth he may as well be swimming in the ocean during a storm. Is he supposed to know who the brunette woman is, running alongside an absolutely giant brown horse? The horse has an attitude, Eddie notices, as it tosses its large head in excitement as its handler leads it off the end of the path at the conclusion of their jog.

His father nudges him in the upper arm, jostling his sweating drink and almost sending the caramel droplets onto his cream sweater, a mistake that would be problematic for such a highly-publicized event. As Eddie leans in to hear whatever his father had to say, he makes eye contact with a camera that’s panning the length of the arena. Despite having grown up in the spotlight, Eddie had never quite gotten used to the cold, gaping eye of a camera lens.

“There they are,” the elder Diaz says, before beginning to clap loudly for the next pair heading down the path.

A lighter, richer-colored brown horse and a red-headed woman make their way down the path. The woman is wearing a red pantsuit that Eddie thinks could cover all of Chris’s college tuition. “Taylor Kelly,” Ramon says. “Remember that name. She’s ours.”

Ah. The whole reason Eddie and his father are in London to begin with: his father had used his seemingly-endlessly-multiplying millions to sponsor a horse and rider team. The sponsorship was apparently a big deal, as Kelly usually rides for herself and team USA, not needing a sponsor, but the undisclosed sum that Eddie’s father had negotiated with her family had been enough to get a pin of the Diaz company logo onto the lapel of her expensive suit. Now, Taylor Kelly was riding for the Diazes as much as they are riding for team USA, though the elder Diaz would consider them to be one and the same.

The hand not being used to hold Eddie’s drink is suddenly grasped by his father’s cold fingers, and a black ear-piece is pressed into his palm. He wiggles it into his ear and it crackles to life, the previously muffled voice of the announcer now coming through loud and clear as the next pair approach the path.

“That was Taylor Kelly and Smile for the Camera given the all-clear by the vets,” says the announcer, a thick British accent immediately distinguishable. “Next up is- well, I’d say infamous, but that would imply that people like him. Next up is Evan Buckley- or Buck, as he requests we all call him- and his French-bred mount Saint Francis.”

Eddie finally feels a little less stranded when he sees the similarly-young face of- uh, Buck?- jog down the path. Clad in gray plaid pants and a black sweater, the young man looks like a panther next to his tall, lanky white horse. The black of the horse’s bridle is the only thing that matches Buck, the rest a stark contrast. 

Buck may be under-dressed by comparison to the other riders, but the gleaming white-grey of his horse’s coat is near blinding. Its’ mane is tacked up into bobbles atop its neck, so tight they look like they hurt, and its tail is whiter than chalk and flouncing like a waterfall as they parade down the path. Eddie knows nothing about horses but he can tell that this is a proud one by the way he picks up his knees and flags his tail at the end of his jog. 

Before he and Buck exit the path, the horse nudges Buck’s shoulder with his pink and white nose. Buck gives his companion a rueful smile in response, but thats all. He seems a bit subdued compared to the other handlers, less comfortable on camera, maybe- which Eddie could definitely relate to. 

“I can’t say it’s unusual for the horse to outdo the rider in terms of notability, but normally it’s a closer competition than it is here. Regardless, Buck and Saint Florian are clear for the Badminton trials.” They’re graced with a courteous bit of scattered applause, before they brush right past the Diazes and emerge out into the arena, where horses, riders, and grooms of all countries seem to be mingling. Eddie watches Buck go, the blonde hair atop his head an unusual sight compared to a sea of brunette, gray, or raven-haired riders- not counting Taylor Kelly’s bright red hair, which was also an outlier.

As Eddie watches, a pair of brown horses nudge at each other’s withers in what seems to be a friendly manner, considering how their owners gush, and someone snaps a photo.

“Disgrace he is, that ‘Buck’ boy,” Ramon tsks, leaving Eddie no time to ask questions before the announcer booms out the names of the next pair. Freddie Costas and his horse Rigged to Blow make their way through the jog. “Now that’s a fine looking rider, is he not?”

Clad in a dark green coat and white pants, the rider makes his way out into the arena with an all-clear from the vets, as well. While most other riders are still mingling with other members of their team, Eddie can’t help but notice how Buck does not mingle, but rather, has begun to make his way out of sight and back to what Eddie assumes would be the stables. Eddie turns around enough to watch the boy recede, his white horse walking gracefully beside him. However, before he ducks out of view, Freddie Costas catches up, and the pair exchange an amicable handshake before they both depart.

Ramon and the announcer both seem to be a bit less fond of Buck than Eddie finds himself beginning to be. Why he’s taken a liking to the boy after a five minute appearance is a mystery, and, he realizes, probably just another unconscious rebellion against his father. Despite that, at the end of the arduously-long inspection of eighty-seven horses, Eddie has to admit that Buck is still his favorite of the group.

That admission earns a hearty chuckle from his father, and a firm clap on the back that is as much a warning as it is a fatherly gesture for the cameras. “Funny one, you are,” Ramon grits out, before giving a friendly wave to the sea of reporters and ushering Eddie in their direction.

Like a good son, Eddie stands stoic and handsome for the cameras, flashing a smile at whatever reporter snaps a photo of him and his famous father together. His hand is damp from the condensation of his drink, and when the cameras aren’t looking, he quickly downs the rest of it before handing the cup to a waiter who was weaving through the crowd with a tray balanced on one hand.

The sun is just about heading for the horizon, the tops of trees and hills visible over the edge of the tall rows of bleachers. An orange glow was beginning to bathe the arena, and photographers took advantage of the lighting to snap some more photos of the horses and riders. While his father talks to a reporter from Horse & Country about his hopes for Taylor Kelly this week, Eddie lets his eyes drift over the crowd. It’s slowly dispersing as the post-jog interviews conclude, most of the big names from Britain, the USA, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands having already left. The other countries seem to have fewer spectators in London this week. As Eddie watches, a pair of British riders take their horses down towards the stables to the tune of enthusiastic applause from the strong local contingent here at Badminton.

Team USA seems to have gathered in the arena for a photo opportunity, and some words with reporters, but that blonde hair Eddie is looking for is absent. He’s so engrossed in the search, watching who he thinks is a groom quickly fix the braids of one of the horses, that he startles when his father pats him on the shoulder.

“Come on, I have someone for you to say hello to,” his father says with a nod. Eddie steels himself, straightening his posture as he and his father pick their way through the crowd and out towards the expansive area of the in-gate.

Eddie smiles when he sees who, exactly, his father was taking him to see. The Hans, a respectable looking family who look very comfortable amidst the horses passing on either side of them, spot the Diazes and wave. He and the Hans’ son, a slightly older man who goes by Chimney, had been childhood friends. They had spent many an afternoon sat on a boring golf course with Chim, talking about everything other than what their families had been up to while their fathers had golfed together.

Chimney looks relieved to see Eddie as well, sporting a grin as he extends a hand to him. Eddie takes his hand for a brief, formal shake before using it to pull Chim into a hug, clapping him on the back as the other man laughs.

“So glad to see you,” Eddie says, and to his father it sounds like a regular greeting, but Chimney knows that it’s more of a “Thank God you’re here”. The other man gets the message and gives Eddie’s shoulder a squeeze before they separate.

Eddie gives both of Chimney’s parents a handshake and an awkward nod before his father claps his hands proudly and announces, “We’ll be joining the Hans for dinner with their rider tonight.”

“Your rider?” Eddie raises his eyebrows, looking to Chim for confirmation, who wiggles his own brows in excitement.

“Oh, I think you’ll like him.”

[fatehbaz]

The [...] British quest for Tahitian breadfruit and the subsequent mutiny on the Bounty have produced a remarkable narrative legacy [...]. William Bligh’s first attempt to transport the Tahitian breadfruit [from the South Pacific] to the Caribbean slave colonies in 1789 resulted in a well-known mutiny orchestrated by his first mate [...]. [T]he British government [...] successfully transplanted the tree to their slave colonies four years later. [...] [There was a] colonial mania for [...] the breadfruit, [...] [marked by] the British determination to transplant over three thousand of these Tahitian food trees to the Caribbean plantations to "feed the slaves." [...]

Tracing the routes of the breadfruit from the Pacific to the Caribbean, [...] [shows] an effort initiated, coordinated, and financially compensated by Caribbean slave owners [...]. [During] decades worth of lobbying from the West Indian planters for this specific starchy fruit [...] planters [wanted] to avert a growing critique of slavery through a "benevolent" and "humanitarian" use of colonial science [...]. The era of the breadfruit’s transplantation was marked by a number of revolutions in agriculture (the sugar revolution), ideology (the humanitarian revolution), and anticolonialism (the [...] Haitian revolutions) [as well as the American and French revolutions]. [...] By the end of Joseph Banks’ tenure [as a botanist and de facto leader] at the Kew Botanical Gardens [royal gardens in London] (1821), he had personally supervised the introduction of over 7,000 new food and economic plants. [...] Banks produced an idyllic image of the breadfruit [...] [when he had personally visited Tahiti while part of Captain Cook's earlier voyage] in 1769 [...].

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[I]n the wake of multiple revolutions [...], [breadfruit] was also seen as a panacea for a Caribbean plantation context in which slave, maroon, and indigenous insurrections and revolts in St Vincent and Jamaica were creating considerable anxiety for British planters. [...]

Interestingly, the two islands that were characterized by ongoing revolt were repeatedly solicited as the primary sites of the royal botanical gardens [...]. In 1772, when St Vincentian planters first started lobbying Joseph Banks for the breadfruit, the British militia was engaged in lengthy battle with the island’s Caribs. [...] By 1776, months after one of the largest slave revolts recorded in Jamaica, the Royal Society [administered by Joseph Banks, its president] offered a bounty of 50 pounds sterling to anyone who would transfer the breadfruit to the West Indies. [...] [A]nd planters wrote fearfully that if they were not able to supply food, the slaves would “cut their throats.” It’s widely documented that of all the plantation Americas, Jamaica experienced the most extensive slave revolts [...]. An extensive militia had to be imported and the ports were closed. [...]

By seeking to maintain the plantation hierarchy by importing one tree for the diet of slaves, Caribbean planters sought to delay the swelling tide of revolution that would transform Saint Domingue [Haiti] in the next few years. Like the Royal Society of Science and Arts of Cap François on the eve the Haitian revolution, colonists mistakenly felt they could solve the “political equation of the revolution […] with rational, scientific inquiry.” [...]

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When the trees arrived in Jamaica in 1793, the local paper reported almost gleefully that “in less than 20 years, the chief article of sustenance for our negroes will be entirely changed.” […] One the one hand, the transplantation of breadfruit represented the planters’ attempt to adopt a “humanitarian” defense against the growing tide of abolitionist and slave revolt. In an age of revolution, [they wanted to appear] to provide bread (and “bread kind”) [...]. This was a point not to be missed by the coordinator of the transplantation, Sir Joseph Banks. In a letter written while the Bounty was being fitted for its initial journey, he summarized how the empire would benefit from new circuits of botanical exchange:

Ceres was deified for introducing wheat among a barbarous people. Surely, then, the natives of the two Great Continents, who, in the prosecution of this excellent work, will mutually receive from each other numerous products of the earth as valuable as wheat, will look up with veneration the monarch […] & the minister who carried into execution, a plan [of such] benefits.

Like giving bread to the poor, Banks articulated this intertropical trade in terms of “exalted benevolence,” an opportunity to facilitate exchange between the peoples of the global south that placed them in subservience to a deified colonial center of global power. […]

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Bligh had no direct participation in the [slave] trade, but his uncle, Duncan Campbell (who helped commission the breadfruit journey), was a Jamaican plantation owner and had employed Bligh on multiple merchant ships in the Caribbean. Campbell was also deeply involved, with Joseph Banks, in transporting British convicts to the colonies of Australia. In fact Banks’ original plan for the breadfruit voyage was to drop off convicts in (the significantly named) Botany Bay, and then proceed to Tahiti for the breadfruit. Campbell owned a series of politically untenable prison hulks on the Thames which he emptied by shipping his human chattel to the Pacific. Banks helped coordinate these early settlements [...] to encourage white Australian domesticization.

The commodification and rationalist dispersal of plants and human convicts, slaves, the impoverished, women, and other unwilling participants in global transplantation is a rarely told narrative root of colonial “Bounty.”

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All text above: Elizabeth DeLoughrey. “Globalizing the Routes of Breadfruit and Other Bounties”. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History Volume 8, Number 3, Winter 2007. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]