#sir Thomas

[bethanydelleman]

Two extra points:

People often erroneously assume that all/most of the Bertram's income comes from Antigua. This is most likely untrue. Sir Thomas was in financial trouble because Antigua was giving poor returns AND Tom ran up some massive debts. He probably could have dealt with one or the other, not both. Plantations in England are mentioned and a five mile park around the manor house, so it's likely they have a good income in England which Antigua supplements.

Secondly, the novel never reveals what exactly Sir Thomas had or fixed in Antigua and he is presented as a moral character throughout. His redemption at the end is about mercenary ambitions in England and in regards to his children. Whatever point Jane Austen was trying to make about slavery, I never trust anyone who says they know exactly what it was. It might be more about Fanny Price/the position of women in British society (a point explicitly made in Emma*) which is not super palatable today. It may be about how the entire gentry's wealth is founded in suffering. I don't know. But I find people who dismiss the entire book because Sir Thomas is (possibly) a slave owner really annoying. Just because we are explicitly told Sir Thomas has interest in Antigua doesn't mean any of the other extremely wealthy men are innocent. What kind of trade made those Bingleys so wealthy?

*“Excuse me, ma’am, but this is by no means my intention; I make no inquiry myself, and should be sorry to have any made by my friends. When I am quite determined as to the time, I am not at all afraid of being long unemployed. There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something—Offices for the sale—not quite of human flesh—but of human intellect.”

“Oh! my dear, human flesh! You quite shock me; if you mean a fling at the slave-trade, I assure you Mr. Suckling was always rather a friend to the abolition.” “I did not mean, I was not thinking of the slave-trade,” replied Jane; “governess-trade, I assure you, was all that I had in view; widely different certainly as to the guilt of those who carry it on; but as to the greater misery of the victims, I do not know where it lies. But I only mean to say that there are advertising offices, and that by applying to them I should have no doubt of very soon meeting with something that would do.”

Emma, V 2, Ch XVII

Don’t Write Off Sir Thomas

Sir Thomas is a very complex character and it’s important to understand him. He is both a deeply moral person and involved in slavery and that makes him human.

Yes, Sir Thomas is probably a slave owner, or a person who invests in sugar plantations that use slavery. But that is not how he sees himself. He probably doesn’t even think about it much, he sees himself as a moral father, a good member of parliament, and a good husband. And the tricky part is that he can reasonably be both.

Slavery is bad (obviously), but we are also on a very precarious high horse when we judge Sir Thomas and the rest of Regency England. Most people then probably didn’t think about the origin of their sugar, just like we today don’t. Most people probably thought slavery was unfortunate, but how else do they get cotton or tea? It’s just how the economy works! It wasn’t in front of them, they had their own problems, they forgot, or they reasoned, or they justified.

Many many product TODAY (like chocolate and tea) are produced by slaves or in very slave-like conditions, some things in the very same countries. We know, or should know, that companies use child labour and that offshore factories in so many countries are terrible and inhumane. We should know that the cheap products we buy are made by people living in near slavery. It’s just how the economy works! It isn’t in front of us; we forget, we reason, and we justify.

Sir Thomas is not any better or worse than us. He does what many people do, he compartmentalizes. He does something totally immoral during the day and then comes home and believes he’s a moral person. That’s just his job (or investment), it’s not him. He goes to church, he supports the poor around Mansfield, and tries to raise his children with principles. Just because he’s much closer and much more involved in the evil doesn’t acquit anyone else. And just because slavery was clearly wrong, doesn’t mean that any of us are right.

So instead of just writing off Sir Thomas as evil because he’s involved in slavery, we should take a moment to wonder what someone in 200 years will think of us, and our economy, and our rationalizations of evil.

(This is why the 1999 adaption, which made him into a flatly evil character, did not do anything to forward our understanding of slavery. A nuanced discussion of how a person can both see themselves as moral and be involved in such a distasteful activity is the message we actually need to hear)

[janefrigginausten]

Wretchedly did he feel, that with all the cost and care of an anxious and expensive education, he had brought up his daughters without their understanding their first duties, or his being acquainted with their character and temper.

—Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

[rxencantian]

I'm sorry...but how the hell did this two got caught when Goldi and the bears are at the very top???

Rue Barb

Sir Thomas (I'm sorry but 😂. This guy begging...I can't-😂)

[putuponpercy]

Fun fact peepaw Thomas gets knighted after returning from his bwba travels

[bethanydelleman]

[Sir Thomas was most cordially anxious for the perfection of Mr. Crawford's character in that point. He wished him to be a model of constancy; and fancied the best means of effecting it would be by not trying him too long]

I love this part of the novel. Sir Thomas seems like such an intelligent, serious man, but he descends into full Mrs. Bennet-mode the second he thinks Henry Crawford might like his niece. He's completely blind to anything but the advantage that the match would bring his family and his standards, as pointed out here, are totally wrong.

Oh Miss Jane I see what you did there.

#burn

[mysecret-hideout]

Accidentally clicked the “new” button, so i am guessing that means i am meant to post something??

Have a picture of my kids:

[lillysdreaminnn]

11am and this is what Pinterest does to me.

[cinematicnomad]

THE TERROR ▸ every mention of "close"

[crankybugs]

Happy Pride Skarloey Railway

[myimmanence]

My piece for notkingyet’s (@notkingyet2) fantastic story ‘Spoke and Wheel’ of our favourite steward turned Lieutenant Jopson as part of the @theterrorbigbang event! The story contemplates relationships forged through peril, with our dear steward at the helm: striving to heal and serve, as is his duty.

Please stay tuned for the notkingyet’s glorious work here (the link will update when it’s live!)

Thank you to the moderators at @theterrorbigbang for this opportunity of collaboration <3

[bethanydelleman]

So you know how in Mansfield Park Sir Thomas accuses Fanny of having designs on Edmund when she rejects Henry’s proposal? What do you think his actual reaction would be when he hears of Edmund’s intentions to marry her afterwards?

I imagine that having learned of Fanny’s superior nature (compared to his own children’s follies), he’d support the match, but I can’t help but think he’d feel a little resentful that his precious Edmund should marry Fanny of all people. I think toward the end of the novel he gains a better appreciation of her qualities, but while reading it, I felt that he was more relieved that his efforts in supporting her education had paid off and that his sentiment toward her good character was more self-congratulatory in nature rather than genuinely appreciative.

At the very least, if Sir Thomas is genuinely happy about Edmund and Fanny’s engagement and marriage, how do you think Mrs. Norris would feel if she received the announcement or invitation to the wedding in the mail?

We are told how Sir Thomas reacted:

Their own inclinations ascertained, there were no difficulties behind, no drawback of poverty or parent. It was a match which Sir Thomas’s wishes had even forestalled. Sick of ambitious and mercenary connexions, prizing more and more the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious to bind by the strongest securities all that remained to him of domestic felicity, he had pondered with genuine satisfaction on the more than possibility of the two young friends finding their natural consolation in each other for all that had occurred of disappointment to either; and the joyful consent which met Edmund’s application, the high sense of having realised a great acquisition in the promise of Fanny for a daughter, formed just such a contrast with his early opinion on the subject when the poor little girl’s coming had been first agitated, as time is for ever producing between the plans and decisions of mortals, for their own instruction, and their neighbours’ entertainment.

Fanny was indeed the daughter that he wanted. His charitable kindness had been rearing a prime comfort for himself. His liberality had a rich repayment, and the general goodness of his intentions by her deserved it. He might have made her childhood happier; but it had been an error of judgment only which had given him the appearance of harshness, and deprived him of her early love; and now, on really knowing each other, their mutual attachment became very strong. After settling her at Thornton Lacey with every kind attention to her comfort, the object of almost every day was to see her there, or to get her away from it.

As for Mrs. Norris, I doubt she recieved a wedding invitation since she kind of burned her bridge with the family, but I imagine she was very angry that Fanny Price got something she didn't deserve (in her opinion).

It bothers me a little bit that Austen does a lot of heavy lifting to redeem the Bertrams, but leaves the Crawfords in the mire. Tom's reformation seems just as dramatic as Henry's would have been, to me at least. But that's how she wrote it.

[janefrigginausten]

There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow.

— Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

[ghostshipglamour]

[almondcroissantsandink]

*Brady Bunches your BBC Ghosts*

[playa-pariah]

Finally complete :’)

(There’s an Easter egg in each portrait ;))

[mysecret-hideout]