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CMP#154  Anti-Slavery Without Apricots

9/26/2023

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This blog explores social attitudes in Jane Austen's time, discusses her novels, reviews forgotten 18th century novels, and throws some occasional shade at the modern academy. ​The introductory post is here.  My "six simple questions for academics" post is here. I'm currently doing a series about the significance, if any, in Austen's choice of the name "Mansfield" for her novel Mansfield Park.

CMP#154   If we read Mansfield Park for its "brave" stance against slavery, (as opposed to its literary merits) why haven't we heard of Alethea Lewis and The Microcosm?
PictureGraphic by Nathan Gelgud (detail)
   Mansfield Park is recommended to modern audiences because it grapples with the topic of slavery and how upper-class English families like the Bertrams benefitted from the revenue from sugar plantations. Sir Thomas, the patriarch of the story is sorting out his business affairs in Antigua during crucial events, but what he is doing there is only vaguely alluded to. The novel in fact does not make any pronouncements about slavery, nor are there any consequences for the Bertram family for living off the avails of slavery--though modern critics believe it contains veiled anti-slavery allusions.
    Well, if anti-slavery messages are why we pick up Mansfield Park, we don't we toss it aside and read Alethea Lewis instead? Because she doesn't go with subtle veiled allusions. She doesn't hold back on her opinions of slave traders and plantation owners. We meet enslaved people in The Microcosm and we travel to Jamaica. Further, Lewis's novel was published before the slave trade (but not slavery) was outlawed, while Mansfield Park was published seven years after. Thus, Fanny Price asking her uncle a question about the slave trade, years after the trade was made illegal, is not exactly a daring thing to do. Regular readers of my blog will know this is something I've banged on about quite a lot, but I had to mention it again after discovering The Microcosm.  The title presumably means, "this novel is a microcosm of society today."... 
    And, Lewis uses the name "Mansfield" in her novel! I personally don't think she is intending a reference to Lord Mansfield, but others may disagree.
​​     If you've been told it was risky for Austen to speak out against slavery, and that she could only hint at it by speaking of "Moor Park Apricots," if you've been told she was brave for speaking out against slavery, check out what Lewis wrote, below (see "Editorial") 


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CMP#153  What was Lord Mansfield famous for?

9/21/2023

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This post is part of an ongoing series looking at novels and other books of the long eighteenth century which mention Lord Mansfield, or have characters named Mansfield. The title of Jane Austen's third novel Mansfield Park is thought by many to be an allusion to Lord Mansfield and the Somerset case. Click here for an explanation of how I'm exploring this question.     If you want a backgrounder on Somerset v Stewart, Dr. Dominique Bouchard gives a fascinating lecture on the the case here.

CMP#153 What was Lord Mansfield Remembered For?  Not Abolition, Evidently
    Continuing my discussion from my last post we turn from novels to obituaries, books of anecdotes, and one particular historical event he's associated with. Of all the topics that come to mind when people referenced Lord Mansfield, was slavery at the top of the list, or even near the top? It appears this wasn't the case until about the 1840's, but if I find any exceptions, I will add them.
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Remembrances When He Died in 1793
   The European Magazine, London Review, the Scots Magazine, and Walker's Hibernian Magazine all printed a brief biography with a collection of anecdotes. It appears to be the same article. No mention of the Somerset case.
     The Annual Register, Or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1793 also describes the contents of his will, which mentions the now-famous Dido, as does the Edinburgh Magazine and the Gentleman's Magazine. Dido was referred to as a "free black," not as a family member.
   Other newspaper articles did not delve into Mansfield's legal accomplishments, but gave brief biographies, praised his public and private character, discussed his will and the size of his estate, and explained who would inherit his titles. Follow up articles gave details of his final illness and his funeral.


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CMP#152: Mentions of Mansfield

9/14/2023

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This blog explores social attitudes in Jane Austen's time, discusses her novels, reviews forgotten 18th century novels, and throws some occasional shade at the modern academy. ​The introductory post is here.  My "six simple questions for academics" post is here.

CMP#152:  Novels which mention Lord Mansfield
PictureLord Mansfield (1705 – 1793)
     I've been exploring the assumption that readers of Austen's time automatically thought of Lord Mansfield when they saw the name Mansfield Park, and specifically, would think of his ruling in Somerset v Stewart. (If you want a backgrounder on what I'm talking about, start here).
    I agree that in Austen’s time, William Murray, Lord Mansfield, was well known and his memory was held in high regard; not universally, because he was at one time involved in politics and therefore he was a member of a political party, which means he had political opponents. More on that coming up.
    Although the readers of the Regency remembered Lord Mansfield, this doesn't mean that he was primarily remembered for the Somerset v. Stewart case. He was a famous legal reformer and a highly respected jurist, so he was remembered for a lot of things. The Somerset case in particular was not, as far as I can see, the top of mind association for a reader in Austen's time, and I'll give examples to show that in this and future posts.
       So far, we've looked at novels in which the authors used the name "Mansfield" for their characters--some good, some bad, some central, some peripheral--with no evident association with either Lord Mansfield or slavery.
     This post will focus on novels in which the narrators or the characters made passing references to the real Lord Mansfield. Some quote him, some refer to him in general, some refer to his judicial wig, some to his rulings on libel. You'll see that I could not turn up a novel which referenced Mansfield's Somerset ruling. 


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CMP#151  Mansfield as a Bit Player

9/6/2023

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​“My argument is that 'Mansfield' is a name of generic Englishness, that it is so widely found as to make singling out a reference to Lord Mansfield both untenable and only understandably popular because of its capacity to be exploited in readings of Mansfield Park that bestow upon the novel a twentieth-century political correctness.”                                                                                --   John Wilshire (link to pdf)

CMP#151   Mansfield as a Bit Player, not Symbolic Allusion
     As I've been discussing in my previous posts, one of the things that makes the "Mansfield Park-is-named-after-Lord Mansfield" theory questionable is the fact that many other novels used the name Mansfield for their characters without any evident reference to the Chief Justice much less to the issue of abolition. Here are a few more examples. 
PictureThe hero's grouchy old uncle cuts him off, and Frederic has to wander the world, pining for his sweetheart
The Heir of Montague (1796-7):
    The Heir of Montague follows one English family, the Montagues (not to be confused with the real noble family of the same name). We open with the life story of grandfather Montague, who has one son and two daughters. 
    One daughter elopes but the unsanctioned marriage ends with the early death of the lovers, leaving their son Frederic, who is the main hero. The other daughter becomes a scolding spinster. In addition to being miserable to her family, she argues about politics--the 18th century version of the culture wars. As her saucy niece Cecelia explains, “Why you know my aunt is a democrat; well, she had been descanting upon rights of man, social happiness, necessary violence, and the blessings of the revolution in France, when I interrupted her, and advised a journey thither…”
  Cecelia and her cousin Frederic are raised by her grouchy father, (the one son mentioned above) who has married a nice ladylike woman. Frederic and Cecelia do not fall in love. Although the countryside is shown as the abode of virtue in novels of this stamp, as opposed to the wicked city, here the countryside is also portrayed as being very dull and tedious for Mrs. Montague, Frederic, and Cecelia. Frederic is educated by an exceedingly long-winded vicar, Dr. Evans, who is opposed to all sorts of things, including singing in public, and warns against the many dangers lurking out there in the world to trap the innocent and unwary.
     Thanks to the plot device of a carriage accident, Frederic meets the beautiful and principled Emma Nevil, who again, despite sharing her name with a noble family, who comes from a lower social strata than the Montagues. Impediments, hardships, and separations ensue before the pair can be happily united...


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    I blog about my research into Jane Austen and her world, plus a few other interests. Welcome! My earlier posts (prior to June 2017) are about my time as a teacher of ESL in China (just click on "China" in the menu below). More about me here. 


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