Rethinking the Colonial State: Family, Gender, and Governmentality in Eighteenth-Century British Frontiers

The article presents an examination of 18th-century British imperialism across three different colonial frontiers in an effort to better understand British colonial governance and state-making. It examines the British holding of Fort Marlborough on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the South Atlantic island St. Helena and the British sugar colony Jamaica. It discusses issues related to governance, discipline and population and examines topics related to the importance of white male privilege, the techniques of colonial governance and local variations of authority that were developed in each colonial setting.