Subjects and Sovereign

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Seven Years’ War, when a variety of conquered and ceded territories became part of an expanding British Empire, crucial struggles emerged about what it meant to be a “British subject.” In Grenada, Quebec, Minorca, Gibraltar, and Bengal, individuals debated the meanings and rights of subjecthood, with many capitalizing on legal ambiguities and local exigencies to secure access to political and economic benefits. In the hands of inhabitants and colonial administrators, subjecthood became a shared language, practice, and opportunity as individuals proclaimed their allegiance to the crown and laid claim to a corresponding set of protections. Approaching subjecthood as a protean and porous concept, rather than an immutable legal status, Subjects and Sovereigns demonstrates that it was precisely subjecthood’s fluidity and imprecision rendered it useful to a remarkably diverse group of individuals. This book revisits the traditional bond between subject and sovereign, arguing that this relationship endured as a powerful site for claims-making throughout the eighteenth century. Muller analyzes both legal understandings of subjecthood, as well as the popular tradition of declaring rights, to demonstrate why subjects believed they were entitled to make requests of their sovereign. She reconsiders narratives of upheaval and transformation during the Age of Revolution and insists on the relevance and utility of existing structures of state and sovereign. Emphasizing the stories of subjects who successfully leveraged their loyalty and negotiated their status, Subjects and Sovereign also explores how and why subjecthood remained an organizing and contested principle of the eighteenth-century British Empire.

‘All spirited likely young lads’: free men of colour, the defence of Jamaica, and subjecthood during the American War for Independence

“…As Hannah Weiss Muller has demonstrated, the inheritance of a vastly expanded territorial empire replete with new and diverse peoples after 1763 was met by efforts to expand definitions of subjecthood in ways that challenged the ethnic exclusivity of the 'rights of Englishmen'. 64 By appealing for redress in this fashion the free men were implicitly asserting their right to be acknowledged and treated as British subjects, echoing similar appeals by myriad subjects spread across the empire. This was not the first time free men had petitioned to advance their status in Jamaica on the basis of military service.…”

“…They operated at two levels: first, as a declaration of loyalty in anticipation of future privileges and, second, as a means of establishing co-equal status with other subject peoples throughout the empire. 63 This was a period in which petitioning was 'omnipresent' as subjects from Canada and the Caribbean to Minorca and South Asia sought to stake a claim in the empire. As Hannah Weiss Muller has demonstrated, the inheritance of a vastly expanded territorial empire replete with new and diverse peoples after 1763 was met by efforts to expand definitions of subjecthood in ways that challenged the ethnic exclusivity of the 'rights of Englishmen'.…”