#to clarify: Lowe was not NEARLY as enthusiastic about ending slavery as he is often made out to be | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hudsonlowesbills · 5 months ago

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Sir Hudson Lowe’s partisans have tried to represent his time at St. Helena as an enlightened proconsulship; they speak of the emancipation of to on of slaves, plantation of forests, improvement of the water supply…[But] …in dealing with the intransigent governor, the board of directors [of the East India Company] found it as difficult to get their authority respected as the Emperor did to preserve his dignity…

Gilbert Martineau, Napoleon’s Saint Helena

I’m sorry, “Hudson Lowe did a lot of good but the fact is that Napoleon Bonaparte and the Fucking East India Company both hated him so jot that down” is not the own against Hudson Lowe’s partisans that Martineau thinks it is

I’m like, if the East India company hates you…

…good?

#hudson lowe #napoleon #to clarify: Lowe was not NEARLY as enthusiastic about ending slavery as he is often made out to be #he’s a 19th century white man and he is as shitty in that regard as you could expect #but Martineau seems to think that Lowe was an enthusiastic abolitionist (rather than an eh and hypocritical one)#and he still thinks ‘ending slavery’ isn’t enough to make up for *checks notes*#wait lemme check notes here #it’s not enough to make up for making napoleon feel bad once or twice by #…addressing him as genera rather than majesty #okay. okay. okay. yeah seems reasonable #I—I tell ya. I tell ya!!

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