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Murder in a quarry: violent encounters and distant intimacy on a Cape convict station
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2024
Abstract
This article uses a micro-historical approach to examine an escape and murder among convict labourers between Cape Town and Stellenbosch in Southern Africa in the 1840s. It does so to demonstrate how imperial mobilities and legal conceptions of property crime were interconnected within settler colonial capital and the intimacies of colonial social worlds. Reforms in penal practice in the British Empire – in this instance, adopted in the Cape Colony from Tasmanian experiments in convict labour and moral improvement – formed part of post-abolition shifts in labour control and the management of the itinerant poor, increasingly guided by anxieties over race. Michael O’Brien, the murderer, was a suspected escaped convict from Australia, who claimed to have survived violent encounters in the Pacific as a missionary. His narrative contrasts with the predominantly regional mobilities and crimes of the other Cape convicts – notably stock theft and petty robbery – that occurred in the contested spaces of law, colonialism and property. This article discusses convict narratives around crime and redemption across a maritime empire, and the affective relations of coercion and care between convicts, overseers, constables and superintendents on the smaller scale of a convict station. It further contends that changes in criminal justice and governance in Southern Africa were thus contingent on the intimacies of scale and affect, on connections between the local, the global and the biographical.
Résumé
Cet article utilise une approche micro-historique pour examiner une évasion et un meurtre entre forçats, entre Cape Town et Stellenbosch en Afrique australe dans les années 1840. Il démontre ainsi comment les mobilités impériales et les conceptions juridiques du crime contre les biens étaient interconnectées au sein du capital des colons et de l’intimité des mondes sociaux coloniaux. Les réformes de la pratique pénale dans l’Empire britannique (en l’occurrence, adoptées dans la colonie du Cap à partir des expériences tasmaniennes de main-d’œuvre pénale et d’amélioration morale) faisaient partie des changements post-abolitionnistes dans le contrôle du travail et la gestion des pauvres itinérants, de plus en plus guidés par des anxiétés concernant la race. Michael O’Brien, le meurtrier, soupçonné d’être un détenu évadé d’Australie, affirmait avoir survécu à de violents affrontements dans le Pacifique en tant que missionnaire. Son récit contraste avec les mobilités essentiellement régionales et les crimes des autres détenus du Cap (notamment le vol de bétail et les larcins) commis dans les espaces contestés du droit, du colonialisme et de la propriété. Cet article examine des récits de forçats autour du crime et de la rédemption dans un empire maritime, ainsi que les relations affectives de coercition et d’assistance entre les détenus, les surveillants, les policiers et les surintendants à l’échelle d’un bagne. Il soutient en outre que les changements dans la justice pénale et la gouvernance en Afrique australe dépendaient donc de l’intimité d’échelle et d’affect, des liens entre le local, le global et le biographique.
Resumo
Este artigo utiliza uma abordagem micro-histórica para analisar uma fuga e um homicídio entre trabalhadores condenados entre a Cidade do Cabo e Stellenbosch, na África Austral, na década de 1840. O objetivo é demonstrar como as mobilidades imperiais e as concepções jurídicas do crime contra a propriedade estavam interligadas no capital colonial dos colonos e nas intimidades dos mundos sociais coloniais. As reformas da prática penal no Império Britânico – neste caso, adoptadas na Colónia do Cabo a partir das experiências da Tasmânia em matéria de trabalho condenado e de melhoramento moral – faziam parte das mudanças pós-abolição no controlo do trabalho e na gestão dos pobres itinerantes, cada vez mais orientadas por preocupações de ordem racial. Michael O’Brien, o assassino, era um presumível fugitivo da Austrália, que afirmava ter sobrevivido encontros violentos no Pacífico enquanto missionário. A sua narrativa contrasta com as mobilidades e os crimes predominantemente regionais dos outros condenados do Cabo – nomeadamente o roubo de gado e os pequenos furtos – que ocorreram nos espaços contestados da lei, do colonialismo e da propriedade. Este artigo examina das narrativas dos condenados sobre o crime e a redenção num império marítimo, e as relações afectivas de coerção e cuidado entre condenados, supervisores, guardas e superintendentes na escala reduzida de uma estação de condenados. Defende-se ainda que as mudanças na justiça criminal e na governação na África Austral dependiam assim das intimidades de escala e de afeto, das ligações entre o local, o global e o biográfico.
- Type
- Violence and intimacy
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- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute
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