A Surprising Change of Circumstances — Men’s Ambivalent Relationship with Authority

Abstract

Robinson Crusoe’s adventures led to some surprising changes in circumstances, from cabin boy to plantation owner and ‘from a merchant to a miserable slave’ when his ship was taken by ‘Turkish’ pirates. On the world’s oceans, attacks from pirate ships were a regular hazard, though whether a crew were pirates or privateers might depend on which ship’s deck you were standing.¹ But even with their feet firmly on land, the risks that men took when’ straining every faculty of mind and body for the improvement of their condition’ meant that they sometimes lived lives with striking parallels to Crusoe’s. The movement between financial security and poverty, liberty and imprisonment, and being on the right or wrong side of the law, was very slippery. A writer could be imprisoned for publicly criticizing the government’s actions; a Battle of Waterloo veteran could die at the end of a cavalry sabre at a political rally; a machine-breaking Leicestershire stocking weaver could became a convict in New South Wales; a prosperous farmer in Sussex could become a squatter in the Australian colonies; a highwayman could become assistant to the Surgeon-General in a remote outpost of the empire; and a convict could become one of the richest men in Sydney and count among his sons a pastoralist, a legislative councilor, a mayor and a colonial treasurer.²

We are free men — Deterrent or encouragement? — Punished for ingratitude — Shackling hands that were made to be free — Polite highwaymen and gentlemen bushrangers — Beyond the boundaries — It is vain to fly