Colonial Petitions, Colonial Petitioners, and the Imperial Parliament, c. 1780-1918

Huzzey, Richard; Miller, Henry

Abstract

Petitioning was a common form of protest, request, or expression across the British Empire, and historians of colonial rule and resistance have often drawn on petitions as sources to investigate particular controversies. This paper assesses the significance, variety, and context of petitioning to the Imperial Parliament, both from the British Isles and the colonies. To do so, we present new data drawn from more than 1 million petitions sent to the House of Commons in the period c. 1780-1918 alongside qualitative research into a wider range of petitions to other metropolitan sources of authority. This permits us to assess how colonial subjects across the empire demanded attention from Westminster and what the practice of petitioning reveals about the British self-image of parliamentary scrutiny and equality before the law.

Citation

Huzzey, R., & Miller, H. (2022). Colonial Petitions, Colonial Petitioners, and the Imperial Parliament, c. 1780-1918. Journal of British Studies, 61(2), 261-289. https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2021.185

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 11, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 24, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-04
• Deposit Date: Oct 7, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 7, 2021
• Journal: Journal of British Studies
• Print ISSN: 0021-9371
• Electronic ISSN: 1545-6986
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 261-289
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2021.185
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1231569