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Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses Savagery and the State: Incivility and America in Jacobean Political Discourse WORKING, LAUREN,NOEMIE How to cite: WORKING, LAUREN,NOEMIE (2015) Savagery and the State: Incivility and America in Jacobean Political Discourse, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11350/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Savagery and the State: Incivility and America in Jacobean Political Discourse Lauren Working This thesis examines the effects of colonisation on the politics and culture of Jacobean London. Through sources ranging from anti-tobacco polemic to parliament speeches, colonial reports to private diaries, it contends that the language of Amerindian savagery and incivility, shared by policy-makers, London councillors, and colonists alike, became especially relevant to issues of government and behaviour following the post-Reformation state’s own emphasis on civility as a political tool. Practices such as tobacco-smoking and cannibalism were frequently invoked to condemn the behaviour of disobedient English subjects and to encourage orthodoxy, while justifying a more extensive level of interference in the habits and customs of subjects as well as native peoples. By focusing on the interrelation between the state’s twin projects of civilising others and consolidating authority within the realm, this thesis challenges the scholarly tendency to view colonisation as existing outside state politics prior to the development of empire, and locates a distinct vogue for cultivation – both of landscapes and of the civil subject – that played a role in James’ own conception of sovereignty. This engagement with America and its indigenous populations indicates a significant colonial moment in London in the 1610s and 1620s, located in converging political and ‘civilising’ centres including Whitehall, parliament, and the Inns of Court. Moreover, a growing familiarity with colonial affairs did not just manifest itself in the rhetoric or the actions of colonists and project promoters, but can be used to identify changing modes of consumption and shifting attitudes in London towards sociability and the articulation of state authority. These initiatives increased the scope for political participation in the metropolis, while shaping the development of civility and status in relation to cultural difference. SAVAGERY AND THE STATE: Incivility and America in Jacobean Political Discourse Lauren Working Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History Durham University 2015 Quartz crystal Powhatan arrowhead and 1607 silver sixpence, Historic Jamestowne, 2106-JR/80A (Image is author’s own.) TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations .................................................................................................. i Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ ii Statement of Copyright ......................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... iv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1 England and the Atlantic ........................................................................................ 3 Civility and Regulation in Jacobean England ......................................................... 7 The English Appropriation of Native American Tropes ........................................ 15 Sources and Parameters ....................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER TWO: CULTIVATING CIVILITY: THE COLONISING PROJECTS OF THE JACOBEAN STATE ..................................................... 30 Historiography ..................................................................................................... 31 The Vogue for Planting: The Court ...................................................................... 37 The Vogue for Planting: Parliament and the Localities ......................................... 44 Civility as Cultivation .......................................................................................... 53 Cultivation and Behaviour ................................................................................... 59 Violence and Planting .......................................................................................... 65 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILISING THE BODY: THE RULES OF APPAREL IN IRELAND AND LONDON .......................................................................... 74 Historiography ..................................................................................................... 75 States of Undress ................................................................................................. 81 Regulating Attire ................................................................................................. 88 Clothing as Resistance ......................................................................................... 97 Degeneration and Anti-Savagery .........................................................................102 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................112 CHAPTER FOUR: AMERINDIANS AND LAWYERS: CONCEPTS OF SAVAGERY AT THE INNS OF COURT .......................................................117 Historiography ....................................................................................................118 The Taste for Expansion .....................................................................................124 Degrees of Savagery ...........................................................................................132 The Sociability of Smoking .................................................................................138 Enacting Savagery ..............................................................................................144 Incivility in Political Discourse…………………………………………………..149 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................156 CHAPTER FIVE: ‘THE SAUAGES OF VIRGINIA OUR PROJECT’: THE POWHATAN IN ENGLISH POLITICAL THOUGHT .................................161 Historiography ....................................................................................................162 The Politics of Conformity ..................................................................................168 Savagery as Degeneration ...................................................................................175 London and the Massacre of 1622 .......................................................................183 ‘Our Royal Sovereignty’: Sovereignty Over Savagery ........................................192 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................201 CHAPTER SIX: THE SEDUCTIONS OF SAVAGERY: TOBACCO AND DISSENT IN LONDON ....................................................................................206 Historiography ....................................................................................................208 Tobacco in England ............................................................................................210 Incivility and Disorder ........................................................................................216 Smoke and Treason .............................................................................................225 Effacing Savagery ...............................................................................................233 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................239 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE RITES OF VIOLENCE: CANNIBALISM AND THE POLITICS OF BLOODSHED ................................................................242 Historiography ....................................................................................................244 English Encounters with Cannibalism .................................................................248 Political Theophagy ............................................................................................253 Cruelty and Factionalism ....................................................................................266 Savagery and the State ........................................................................................274 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................283
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