Description
Book SynopsisEmpire and Emancipation explores how the agency of Scottish and Irish Catholics redefined understandings of Britishness and British imperial identity in colonial landscapes. In highlighting the relationship of Scottish and Irish Catholics with the British Empire, S. Karly Kehoe starts an important and timely debate about Britain’s colonizer constituencies.
The colonies of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Newfoundland, and Trinidad had some of the British Empire’s earliest, largest, and most diverse Catholic populations. These were also colonial spaces where Catholics exerted significant influence. Given the extent to which Scottish and Irish Catholics were constrained at home by crippling legislation, long-established patterns of socio-economic exclusion, and increasing discrimination, the British Empire functioned as the main outlet for their ambition. Kehoe shows how they engaged with and benefitted from the security needs of an expanding empire, the
Table of Contents
Introduction: Catholic Britons at the Atlantic Fringe Part I: Identity, Catholic Relief, and Imperial Security 1. Catholics, Colonies, and the Imperial State 2. Imperial Security and Catholic Relief 3. Colonial Catholics and Constitutional Change: Developments in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Part II: Service, Education, and Political Influence 4. Engaging with Imperial Traditions: Military Mobilization and Slavery 5. Enabling Ambition through Education 6. The Decline of Lay Authority: Ecclesiastical Reorganization and Imperial Power in Trinidad and Newfoundland Conclusion
