From puddles, streams, creeks, rivers, and lakes to bays, estuaries, harbors, seas, and oceans, w... more From puddles, streams, creeks, rivers, and lakes to bays, estuaries, harbors, seas, and oceans, water covers nearly three-quarters of the earth's surface and is vital to all of the planet's living organisms. Although all creatures and plants need water to sustain life, humans have developed a proprietary relationship to the liquid substance. We have dammed rivers, diverted streams, drained ponds, reclaimed marshes, and made lakes. But humanity's biggest achievement has been its triumphant mastery over the oceans. The simple ability to build and sail a vessel over large bodies of water represents generations of human technological innovation and skill. Oceans have defined and shaped humanity, and even though a majority of earth's population lives in their respective landlocked continental interiors, at one time, deep within our collective past, we were all maritime people. 1 Yet, historians only began studying the interplay between humans and their maritime environment, which they deemed "maritime history," in the mid-twentieth century. But with only a few practitioners and a vast expanse of the human experience to explore, the new discipline became lost in a sea of possibilities. Thirty years later, however, another group of scholars recognized humanity's connection to its watery past and decided to focus their efforts upon examining the culture of a single ocean-the Atlantic-and, hence, Atlantic World history was born. Both maritime history and Atlantic World history are relatively new to the academy and both hold an ocean or oceans as their central focus. Yet, while maritime history exhibits static growth patterns, Atlantic World history increases in prominence and popularity. In 2010, 30% of History departments in the United States who advertised positions in colonial American history stated that they preferred candidates to have Atlantic history as one of their teachable fields; only 7% of history departments requested candidates to be versed in maritime history. 2 This increased interest in candidates' ability to teach the Atlantic World in the classroom corresponds to earlier progress in the field, such as the release of the first textbook with an Atlanticist perspective, the creation of an Atlantic World discussion network on H-Net, and a permanent International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World established at Harvard University. 3 While Atlantic World history and maritime history began around the same time, the history of the Atlantic World is currently more chic. Daniel Vickers attributes this to the fact that Atlantic World history has a clear theoretical framework, while maritime history remains ill-defined. 4 This article attempts to define both disciplines, discuss their differences and similarities, and argue that maritime historians have a lot to learn from practitioners of Atlantic World history. Maritime history suffers most from an embarrassment of riches. The discipline can include, but is not limited to the history of fishing, whaling, navigation, sea exploration, ships, ship design, shipbuilding, shipping, lighthouses, international maritime law, naval history, maritime economics and trade, and the social history of sailors, documenting the importance of the ocean in global, national, and regional history.
Governor Arthur Phillip did not magically extend British sovereignty over the continent of Austra... more Governor Arthur Phillip did not magically extend British sovereignty over the continent of Australia when he read his orders to the assembled convicts and members of the military in January 1788. To the international community, this act of declatory sovereignty claimed Australia for Britain. Gaining practical legal authority over the indigenous population, however, took years and a number of court cases to obtain. The British established their sovereignty over the Australian Aborigines by integrating them into the British legal system. This legal incorporation eventuated in stages. Three important stages were: first in 1790, when the British attempted to punish Aborigines for the murder of white men, secondly in 1827, when the British tried to punish white settlers for the deaths of indigenes, and lastly in 1836 when the British decided to punish indigenes for murders committed amongst themselves. Previous colonial experience influenced British officials' dealing with the indigenous population of Australia. Many of the colonisers who settled in Australia, Britain's penultimate colony, had lived in other parts of the British Empire. This prior colonial experience shaped the views and outlooks of legal policy towards the Aborigines.
On a morning in August 1826, at Wallis' Plains, in the district of Northumberland, 80 miles north... more On a morning in August 1826, at Wallis' Plains, in the district of Northumberland, 80 miles north of Port Jackson, three shots rang out in quick succession, followed closely by a fourth. 1 When the smoke from the muskets cleared, one Aboriginal man, slumped over from the weight of the chains that bound him to a gum tree, was dead. When one 'ball hit him in the back of the neck, the black turned round his head' and looked at his assailant. Another soldier 'fired and the bullet cut along the jaw and broke the bone'. The third shot missed the prisoner. The Aboriginal man turned his head again and 'another Soldier stepped up, fired and blew his head to pieces'. 2 The soldiers who fired the fatal shots, accompanied by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe, 3 left the bloody body in the dust and returned to their barracks for breakfast. 4 Later that evening, Lowe ordered his sergeant, Lewis Moore, to find two or three men to dig a grave. Sergeant Moore found William Constantine, who worked as a messenger in Wallis' Plains and asked him to assist in the burial. Constantine agreed, and found two more men, William Salisbury and Thomas Newton, to aid him. The men dug a shallow grave near the remains of a disused latrine at Government House in Wallis' Plains. 5 Afterward, the body of the Aboriginal man, referred to as 'Jacky Jacky', was thrown in and quickly covered up. 6 This article explores the political, colonial and social environment in the period leading up to the Supreme Court trial of Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe for the murder of Jacky Jacky in 1827. Whites had been tried for the murder of Aborigines prior to Lowe,
From puddles, streams, creeks, rivers, and lakes to bays, estuaries, harbors, seas, and oceans, w... more From puddles, streams, creeks, rivers, and lakes to bays, estuaries, harbors, seas, and oceans, water covers nearly three-quarters of the earth's surface and is vital to all of the planet's living organisms. Although all creatures and plants need water to sustain life, humans have developed a proprietary relationship to the liquid substance. We have dammed rivers, diverted streams, drained ponds, reclaimed marshes, and made lakes. But humanity's biggest achievement has been its triumphant mastery over the oceans. The simple ability to build and sail a vessel over large bodies of water represents generations of human technological innovation and skill. Oceans have defined and shaped humanity, and even though a majority of earth's population lives in their respective landlocked continental interiors, at one time, deep within our collective past, we were all maritime people. 1 Yet, historians only began studying the interplay between humans and their maritime environment, which they deemed "maritime history," in the mid-twentieth century. But with only a few practitioners and a vast expanse of the human experience to explore, the new discipline became lost in a sea of possibilities. Thirty years later, however, another group of scholars recognized humanity's connection to its watery past and decided to focus their efforts upon examining the culture of a single ocean-the Atlantic-and, hence, Atlantic World history was born. Both maritime history and Atlantic World history are relatively new to the academy and both hold an ocean or oceans as their central focus. Yet, while maritime history exhibits static growth patterns, Atlantic World history increases in prominence and popularity. In 2010, 30% of History departments in the United States who advertised positions in colonial American history stated that they preferred candidates to have Atlantic history as one of their teachable fields; only 7% of history departments requested candidates to be versed in maritime history. 2 This increased interest in candidates' ability to teach the Atlantic World in the classroom corresponds to earlier progress in the field, such as the release of the first textbook with an Atlanticist perspective, the creation of an Atlantic World discussion network on H-Net, and a permanent International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World established at Harvard University. 3 While Atlantic World history and maritime history began around the same time, the history of the Atlantic World is currently more chic. Daniel Vickers attributes this to the fact that Atlantic World history has a clear theoretical framework, while maritime history remains ill-defined. 4 This article attempts to define both disciplines, discuss their differences and similarities, and argue that maritime historians have a lot to learn from practitioners of Atlantic World history. Maritime history suffers most from an embarrassment of riches. The discipline can include, but is not limited to the history of fishing, whaling, navigation, sea exploration, ships, ship design, shipbuilding, shipping, lighthouses, international maritime law, naval history, maritime economics and trade, and the social history of sailors, documenting the importance of the ocean in global, national, and regional history.
Governor Arthur Phillip did not magically extend British sovereignty over the continent of Austra... more Governor Arthur Phillip did not magically extend British sovereignty over the continent of Australia when he read his orders to the assembled convicts and members of the military in January 1788. To the international community, this act of declatory sovereignty claimed Australia for Britain. Gaining practical legal authority over the indigenous population, however, took years and a number of court cases to obtain. The British established their sovereignty over the Australian Aborigines by integrating them into the British legal system. This legal incorporation eventuated in stages. Three important stages were: first in 1790, when the British attempted to punish Aborigines for the murder of white men, secondly in 1827, when the British tried to punish white settlers for the deaths of indigenes, and lastly in 1836 when the British decided to punish indigenes for murders committed amongst themselves. Previous colonial experience influenced British officials' dealing with the indigenous population of Australia. Many of the colonisers who settled in Australia, Britain's penultimate colony, had lived in other parts of the British Empire. This prior colonial experience shaped the views and outlooks of legal policy towards the Aborigines.
On a morning in August 1826, at Wallis' Plains, in the district of Northumberland, 80 miles north... more On a morning in August 1826, at Wallis' Plains, in the district of Northumberland, 80 miles north of Port Jackson, three shots rang out in quick succession, followed closely by a fourth. 1 When the smoke from the muskets cleared, one Aboriginal man, slumped over from the weight of the chains that bound him to a gum tree, was dead. When one 'ball hit him in the back of the neck, the black turned round his head' and looked at his assailant. Another soldier 'fired and the bullet cut along the jaw and broke the bone'. The third shot missed the prisoner. The Aboriginal man turned his head again and 'another Soldier stepped up, fired and blew his head to pieces'. 2 The soldiers who fired the fatal shots, accompanied by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe, 3 left the bloody body in the dust and returned to their barracks for breakfast. 4 Later that evening, Lowe ordered his sergeant, Lewis Moore, to find two or three men to dig a grave. Sergeant Moore found William Constantine, who worked as a messenger in Wallis' Plains and asked him to assist in the burial. Constantine agreed, and found two more men, William Salisbury and Thomas Newton, to aid him. The men dug a shallow grave near the remains of a disused latrine at Government House in Wallis' Plains. 5 Afterward, the body of the Aboriginal man, referred to as 'Jacky Jacky', was thrown in and quickly covered up. 6 This article explores the political, colonial and social environment in the period leading up to the Supreme Court trial of Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe for the murder of Jacky Jacky in 1827. Whites had been tried for the murder of Aborigines prior to Lowe,
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