Oracles of Empire

This innovative look at previously neglected poetry in British America represents a major contribution to our understanding of early American culture. Spanning the period from the Glorious Revolution (1690) to the end of King George's War (1750), this study critically reconstitutes the literature of empire in the thirteen colonies, Canada, and the West Indies by investigating over 300 texts in mixed print and manuscript sources, including poems in pamphlets and newspapers. British America's poetry of empire was dominated by three issues: mercantilism's promise that civilization and wealth would be transmitted from London to the provinces; the debate over the extent of metropolitan prerogatives in law and commerce when they obtruded upon provincial rights and interests; and the argument that Britain's imperium pelagi was an ethical empire, because it depended upon the morality of trade, while the empires of Spain and France were immoral empires because they were grounded upon conquest. In discussing these issues, Shields provides a virtual anthology of poems long lost to students of American literature.

David S. Shields is associate professor of English at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.

Acknowledgments Introduction: The Issue of Empire in the Literary Self-Understanding of British Americans Part One - The British Empire and the Poetry of Commerce 1. The Literary Topology of Mercantilism 2. The Tide of Empire Imperium Pelagi "The Sea-Piece" The Tribulations of Columbus Blood and Brine 3. The Material Redeemers The Archetype of Liberty and Law The Benefactor 4. Staples Trading Weed Dyer's "Fleece" "Indico" "The Sugar-Cane" Islands of Iniquity The Deserted Plantation Heroic Agriculture Part Two - The Paper Wars over the Prerogative 5. The Problem of the Prerogative 6. The Paper Wars in Massachusetts Old Charter The Pharaoh of Prerogative The Passing of the Mantle The Problem of Old Sarum's Son "Belcher Apostate" 7. The Spread of Boston Principles The Keeper The Power of Fable "The Mock Monarchy or Kingdom of Apes" Bestial Riddles Ballad War The Riddle Part Three - The Rhetoric of Imperial Animosity 8. Empire of Evil "Zeuma; or, The Love of Liberty" (1729) The War of Jenkins' Ear 9. Gallic Perfidy Antichrist in the Wilderness The Violence of Popular Feeling "Indian Songs of Peace" The Conquest of Louisbourg 10. The Tenuousness of Imperial Identity The Sum of All Prophecies Notes Bibliography of Sources Canada New England New York and New Jersey Pennsylvania The Chesopean Colonies The Carolinas Georgia West Indies Metropolitan Writings Index