The colonization of British East Florida in 1763 did not occur in a vacuum. Colonizers formulated different settlement plans based on their experience in the colonies and the Atlantic world in general. The most obvious differentiation was in their choice of labor. Some men chose to base their settlements on slave labor. Others imported white laborers either as indentured servants or tenant farmers. Historians have looked at this differentiation in labor as an important element in the downfall of the colony, but the key question should be: why did each man choose the labor and settlement scheme he did? The answer to this question goes to the nature of the British Empire and the different ideas that developed in the center and peripheral areas of the imperial system. Based on a close analysis of correspondence, official records and petitions, this study examines four different men who were involved in colonizing early East Florida: Colonial governor James Grant, Atlantic merchant Richard Oswald, former member of parliament Denys Rolle, and Scottish physician Andrew Turnbull. Each man dealt with the problems of colonization in different ways. This study is about how each man dealt with the many different influences regarding colonization and labor.

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<p>This dissertation examines the forms of cultural labour performed by devotional rhetoric in the writings of Robert Southwell, Richard Crashaw, John Donne, and Thomas Traherne. The general hypothesis here is that devotional forms of expression provided seventeenth-century individuals with much more than a means of expressing praise; they offered an imaginative space in which to articulate and mitigate the psychological effects of the de-animation of the sacramental cosmos. More specifically, the dissertation explores how these four writers record and seek to negotiate processes of de-sacramentalization (the separating of divine from mundane orders) by internalizing such processes, by registering them, that is, as an experience that occurs within the self. This staging of political and theological conflict as a division within the self provides devotional writers with a certain symbolic leverage. By situating external forms of conflict as inwardly experienced dramas, seventeenth-century devotional writers presume that the process of individual self-transformation or metanoia , which is the general aim of religious discipline in both Reformation and Counter-Reformation traditions, is also the means for achieving social harmony. In this thesis, I am primarily concerned with how devotional writers use particular rhetorical strategies in an effort to fashion an ideal religious subject, a subject that confronts social and cosmological disorder through acts of devotion and self-discipline. At bottom, then, this thesis examines how the rhetoric of subjection functions in early modern devotional contexts as a means of articulating and mitigating the psychological effects of social and theological crises.</p> <p>In order to address the forms of cultural work at stake in Counter-Reformational and Anglican acts of praise, particularly the forms of self-transformation towards which devotional practices aim, I situate early modern texts alongside contemporary psychoanalysis. The primary goal of this juxtaposition is to illuminate the way that early modern devotional writers seek to transform readers in and through verbal acts of praise. Cognizant of the potential for anachronism in such an approach, I place devotional writers and psychoanalytic theory in dialogue with one another, rather than applying psychoanalysis to early modern works as such. In particular, I examine how both devotional discourses and psychoanalytic theory are concerned with understanding and transforming processes of subjection.</p> <p>Through a series of historically and theoretically informed close readings, this thesis addresses the question of why devotion matters both culturally and psychologically. What is at stake in seventeenth-century Anglican and Catholic forms of devotional writing is nothing less than the most intimate dimensions of sacramental life. What is at stake, in other words, is how individuals articulate and experience themselves as images of God. By examining the way that devotional writers structure the experience of subjection to God, the way they give divine subjection concrete form through fantasy, we will better understand the psychic life of power at a moment in Reformation history when traditional forms of devotional and liturgical expression began to lose their authority.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The organisation of ex-service men into a mass membership movement was a new departure in British life. Four main groups came together in 1921 to form the British Legion. On its establishment, the leadership, who were predominantly high- ranking ex-officers, had high hopes of forming an extremely powerful and influential organisation. Due to a number of inherent flaws in the Legion's ideology, composition and character, the organisation never became a truly mass movement of all ex-service men. This work looks at the dynamics of the movement and provides insights into the motivations of its leaders and their impact upon the organisation. It provides a detailed account of the structure of the Legion and explores the strengths and weaknesses of the movement. The existence of a semi-autonomous Officer's Benevolent Department, a subordinate Women's Section, and an independent Legion in Scotland reveal the serious rifts within this superficially unified movement. The paradox of low officer involvement combined with an almost exclusively officer leadership contributed to low membership and other factors such as geography, unemployment and finance are considered in the discussion of Legion membership. Divisions between leaders and led on policy and methods are explored in an examination of Legion democracy. A full examination of the Legion's practical work and the attitudes which underpinned that activity confirms the Legion's position as a voluntary society with traditional charitable views. A detailed examination of the Legion's struggles over pension legislation gives an insight into Government attitudes towards ex-service men and also reveals the inherent weakness of the Legion's position when dealing with politicians. An analysis of the Legion's contacts with foreign ex-service men penetrates the Legion's rhetoric and reveals the real motivations and attitudes of the Legion leaders who developed and executed the Legion's foreign policy. Ultimately, this study provides important conclusions about the nature of the British ex-service movement.

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