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Colonel Jack “My Fellow-Servants”: Othering and Identification in Daniel Defoe’s Colonel Jack Catherine Fleming !"# E$O%&MOUS H#(O of Daniel Defoe’s 1722 Colonel Jack, brother to Captain /ac0 and Major Jac0, spends m2ch of the boo0 atte pting to craft his identity thro2gh his relationships to others3 Jac0’s identity, and partic2larly the connection between his na e and the Union Jac0, attracted the attention of early scholars, b2t c2rrent research is ost invested in Jac0’s intersections with iss2es of race and colonialis . There are few st2dies which foc2s pri arily on Colonel Jack, b2t the novel is increasingly recogni5ed in a1or scholarly wor0s, s2ch as Dennis Todd’s Defoe’s America, which disc2ss the racist colonial syste of North A erica d2ring the 16th and 17th cent2ries3 Altho2gh us2ally disc2ssed in the context of Defoe’s other narratives rather than on its own merits, Colonel Jack has m2ch to reco end it to modern scholarshi.3 With a hero that travels thro2gho2t the United Kingdo , France, and the A ericas, and a plot which evo0es parallels between A erican servit2de and stories of English en enslaved in M2slin %orth Africa, Colonel Jack is partic2larly interesting for its de.iction of international connections and conflicts3 Jac0’s o-servations on the Irish, the Scots, the French, the 6 ericans, and the S.anish settlers of So2th A erica o<er a fascinating st2dy of how perce.tions of national and racial di<erence shape personal identification, the constr2ction of class syste s, and the social str2ct2res that acco .anied the colonial syste of coerced la-o2r3 Digital Defoe: Studies in Defoe & His Contemporaries 11, no. 1 (fall 2019) ISSN 1948-1802 Foc2sing on Jac0’s ti e in the British colonies and what his interactions reveal a-o2t British conceptions of servit2de, slavery, and the syste of indent2red la-o2r, this paper explores how Jac0 uses both identification and othering to create an identity3 Life in the racially-divided colonies of Virginia@or perhaps Maryland, for, as Defoe clai s “Maryland is Virginia, spea0ing of the at a distance” (195)—enco2rages Jac0 to utili5e racial mar0s to esta-lish his character, b2t he beco es quic0ly tangled in linguistic conf2sion as he discovers that racial identification fails to give hi the stat2s that he desires3 Jac0’s desire for recognition, stat2s, and release fro la-o2r persistently leads hi to con;ate servants, slaves, and blac0 individ2als, who Defoe consistently descri-es as “negroes.” This ver-al conf2sion tro2-les Jac0’s atte pt to distinguish la-o2rers fro “gentle en” and to esta-lish hi self as a-ove legal and social r2les3 Fro the beginning of the novel, even before he is kidnapped and forced into service in Virginia, Jac0 lac0s a fa ilial identity or a sta-le sense of self, and the natal alienation of his forced la-or leaves hi , unli0e the Bar-ary captives his story echoes, witho2t even the pro ise of a ho e and fa ily in England to distinguish hi self fro the people aro2nd hi . He cannot define hi self by his na e, for Jack is given to hi as a defa2lt rather than chosen as a mar0 of identity3 He has no parentage, no inherited stat2s, no money, and few prospects, b2t he clings to the idea that his parentage was genteel and his destiny special. Even as a child, Jac0 reports that he “told my n2rse I wo2ld be called captain; for … I was a gentle an, and I wo2ld be a captain” and clai ed precedence over his fellows (62). As evidence that he deserves this stat2s, he o<ers the fact that the townsfol0 a ong who he grew up said he had “a pleasant, s iling co2ntenance” and loo0ed li0e “a gentle anHs son” (Defoe 65, 85). Clinging to this fragile -it of evidence for his destiny, Jac0 echoes Bi-lical language as he keeps the me ory “laid 2p” in his “heart,” just as in the Bi-le Mary keeps evidence of her son Jes2s’ heavenly father and special destiny “in her heart” (Defoe 65; L20e 2:19, 51). As he moves fro free an to indent2red servant to owner, Jac0 retains his opening certainty that he is eant for better things and spends m2ch of the novel defining hi self in opposition to his legal and social eE2als. This o..osition beco es especially tro2-ling d2ring his ti e as an indent2red servant in Virginia3 Defoe mar0s Jac0 as a partic2larly intelligent and s2ccessf2l cri inal. Jac0 clai s that his intelligence and his gentle anly aspirations give hi a special right to gentility and separate hi fro the cri inals that he clai s deserve and benefit fro forci-le indent2re and physical la-o2r3 This progra is mar0ed with contradiction fro the first page of his narrative3 Jac0 insists that “My original may be as high as any Bodies, for my Mother kept very good Co pany,” b2t he i ediately confesses that he does not even 0now his mother’s na e m2ch less those of her co panions (61). Worse, altho2gh his n2rse tells hi his na e is “John,” she gives hi no so2rce for the na e, and when she 2ses the sa e na e for all three of the children under her care the reader is left to wonder 18 whether the na e ca e fro her or fro elsewhere (61). “/ohn” i ediately loses both his individ2ality and his na e, declaring that “6s we were all Johns, we were all Jacks” and the three boys beco e a conglo erate, distinguished by ass2 ed titles b2t si ilar eno2gh that o2r hero Jac0 finds hi self dragged in front of a J2stice for a cri e co itted by another of the Jac0s (129). Defoe highlights Jac0’s f2rther loss of identity in A erica in a footnote3 In ?irginia, he insists, Jac0 “was not call’d Col. Jack as at London, b2t Colonel, and they did not know me by any other na e” (169). He has retained the honorific that he fo2ght for, -2t lost his personal identity, and his first meeting with his “ aster” and benefactor forces hi to confront and co -at his lac0 of identity3 Jac0’s e -arrass ent is pal.a-le as he atte pt to define hi self while knowing “little or nothing of myself, nor what my tr2e Na e is … [norK which is my Christian-%a e or which my Sir-%a e, or whether I was ever Christen’d, or not” (169). Jac0’s conf2sion over his na e is i ediately lin0ed to conf2sion over his “self,” and the repetition of “Christian Na e,” “Christian-%a e” and “Christen’d” draws attention to Jac0’s lac0 of standing in the Christian co 2nity also. While his master knows that “Christian” is both a religio2s mar0er and a descriptor that wo2ld identify hi as part of a co 2nity, Jac0’s decision to hyphenate “Christian- %a e” denotes his ignorant belief that the word “Christian” is i portant only as it relates to the position of his na e, as Defoe’s use of “Sir Na e” silently re inds readers of /ac0’s unf2lfilled desire for a gentle anly father and personal aspirations to gentility3 Li0e Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack follows Defoe’s preferred trajectory by showing its narrator raising hi self fro penniless s2-jection to a wealthy gentle an, 2lti ately rewarding Jac0 with his desired stat2s3 Along the way Defoe revisits the topics of indent2re and slavery that he raised in those earlier novels3 Li0e Ro-inson Cr2soe, who has only one s2ccessf2l voyage, before he is capt2red by “a Turkish Rover” and “ ade [a] Slave” (61), Jac0’s atte pt to ma0e an honest living for hi self leads to his captivity and enforced la-or3 B2t Jac0’s progression toward wealth and leis2re also reveals the exceptional circ2 stances necessary for s2ccess3 Reading Defoe’s transatlantic narratives next to both Bar-ary captivity narratives and reports of forci-le indent2re exposes i .ortant di<erences between individ2als of di<erent religions, nations, and social gro2ps which Defoe’s narratives elide3 By asserting the indistinguisha-ility of persons, places, races, and nations in Colonel Jack, Defoe validates Jac0’s entitle ent and enco2rages the exploitation of others by validating Jac0’s belief in the q2alitative di<erence between la-o2rers and gentle en3 6ltho2gh Jac0 is recogni5ed for “gentle anly” q2alities fro the beginning of his life, it is not until he is capt2red and ta0en to A erica as an indent2red “slave” that he finagles the recognition he believes is his d2e3 Here, s2rro2nded by conde ned cri inals and “Negroes,” Jac0 uses his one exceptional quality, his “nat2ral talent of tal0ing,” to t2rn his l2c0 in avoiding the law into lo2d procla ations of his innocence and unfitness for 19 enial wor03 His narration also undergoes a more s2-tle sli..age away fro a language of co onality toward a language of exceptionalis 3 4is move ent increasingly con;ates his fellow indent2red servants with “Negroes” as he l2 ps the both into the category of otherness3 The story co only slips fro one category of la-orer to another as Defoe begins by descri-ing “the Place where the Servants were us2ally corrected,” and then adds, “there stood two Negroes” ready for correction (176).
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