Empires of Sentiment; Intimacies from Death

David Livingstone and African Slavery ‘at the Heart of the Nation’

Bibliographic Data

ID11944009
AuthorsJoanna Lewis (0000-0003-0974-2230, Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author), J E Lewis
Year2014
Volume43
Issue2
Pages210-237
Publication date2014-12-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-6534 • E-ISSN: 1743-9329
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03086534.2014.974874
OpenAlexW2030231482
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited35

The article re-examines the death of David Livingstone. It highlights the importance of an outpouring of disinhibited emotion in 1874. Despite a shambolic funeral, a working-class underdog and an anti-slavery tradition were placed ‘at the heart of the nation’. Media coverage generated the experience of intimacy from sentimentalised versions of Livingstone's death and interactions with Africans, unleashing mass empathy, moral feeling and humanitarian impulse. It was crucial to the development of Britain's soft-power empire liberalism, inspiring a powerful network, aware of public opinion, to later intervene in eastern Africa. Thus the role of emotion and emotion capital should be factored more into the history of empire

Ancient history · Empathy · Empire · Feeling · Liberalism · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Public opinion · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Australian History and Society · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology