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White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, indigenous communities in the United States and Australia suffered a common experience at the hands of state the removal of their children to institutions in the name of assimilating American Indians and protecting Aboriginal people. Although officially characterized as benevolent, these government policies often inflicted great trauma on indigenous families and ultimately served the settler nations’ larger goals of consolidating control over indigenous peoples and their lands.
White Mother to a Dark Race takes the study of indigenous education and acculturation in new directions in its examination of the key roles white women played in these policies of indigenous child-removal. Government officials, missionaries, and reformers justified the removal of indigenous children in particularly gendered ways by focusing on the supposed deficiencies of indigenous mothers, the alleged barbarity of indigenous men, and the lack of a patriarchal nuclear family. Often they deemed white women the most appropriate agents to carry out these child-removal policies. Inspired by the maternalist movement of the era, many white women were eager to serve as surrogate mothers to indigenous children and maneuvered to influence public policy affecting indigenous people. Although some white women developed caring relationships with indigenous children and others became critical of government policies, many became hopelessly ensnared in this insidious colonial policy.
White Mother to a Dark Race takes the study of indigenous education and acculturation in new directions in its examination of the key roles white women played in these policies of indigenous child-removal. Government officials, missionaries, and reformers justified the removal of indigenous children in particularly gendered ways by focusing on the supposed deficiencies of indigenous mothers, the alleged barbarity of indigenous men, and the lack of a patriarchal nuclear family. Often they deemed white women the most appropriate agents to carry out these child-removal policies. Inspired by the maternalist movement of the era, many white women were eager to serve as surrogate mothers to indigenous children and maneuvered to influence public policy affecting indigenous people. Although some white women developed caring relationships with indigenous children and others became critical of government policies, many became hopelessly ensnared in this insidious colonial policy.
592 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 24, 2021
A truly harrowing read. I learned so much, and am so furious, which I think is a testament to the importance of this historical scholarship.
December 26, 2019
Jacobs’ book gives us a parallel account of the aborigine policies in Australia and USA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In a time when violence was already not tolerated by the public opinion, unfortunately for the two governments, there still were aborigines and Indians, wronged, hushed into reserves and indignant. The narrowed circumstances urged the politicians to muster other means to cope with them and proceed with its unending colonial policy. And the new means, as Margaret relates, happened to be far more ingenious and successful.
Instead of fighting the aborigines with arms, the government used there own kin against them. The aboriginal children were taken from their homes and sent to schools. What’a wrong with it? Everything.
With intent, the teachers severed the children’s connections with their culture. They gave them European names, cut their hair (In some of the tribes short hair was a disgrace), and derided their customs. They raised them “like whites”, but not to make them an equal part of the society. The aboriginal children were prepared for servants. In a time when the Afro Americans fought for their rights, the government found a substitute for slaves – under the cover of adoption, white woman took aboriginal girls for cheap servants.
Another interesting topic in the book is the maternalism movement, a predecessor of the feminism. The white motherhood played a significant role in the removal of indigenous children from their homes through persuasion.
Jacobs’ book is a warning. The government shouldn’t be allowed to replace the family. There can’t be two mothers. The mother can be replaced by a stepmother, and she, as Margaret Jacob shows, can be a cruel one.
I strongly recommend the book as a complement to other literature on the US Indian Policy.
In a time when violence was already not tolerated by the public opinion, unfortunately for the two governments, there still were aborigines and Indians, wronged, hushed into reserves and indignant. The narrowed circumstances urged the politicians to muster other means to cope with them and proceed with its unending colonial policy. And the new means, as Margaret relates, happened to be far more ingenious and successful.
Instead of fighting the aborigines with arms, the government used there own kin against them. The aboriginal children were taken from their homes and sent to schools. What’a wrong with it? Everything.
With intent, the teachers severed the children’s connections with their culture. They gave them European names, cut their hair (In some of the tribes short hair was a disgrace), and derided their customs. They raised them “like whites”, but not to make them an equal part of the society. The aboriginal children were prepared for servants. In a time when the Afro Americans fought for their rights, the government found a substitute for slaves – under the cover of adoption, white woman took aboriginal girls for cheap servants.
Another interesting topic in the book is the maternalism movement, a predecessor of the feminism. The white motherhood played a significant role in the removal of indigenous children from their homes through persuasion.
Jacobs’ book is a warning. The government shouldn’t be allowed to replace the family. There can’t be two mothers. The mother can be replaced by a stepmother, and she, as Margaret Jacob shows, can be a cruel one.
I strongly recommend the book as a complement to other literature on the US Indian Policy.
October 20, 2011
A big, bold book. Jacobs is fearless in two respects: first, in attempting such an ambitious, intercontinental work of comparison, and second, in recounting her findings frankly, aware that they will not be taken well by certain interest groups, but going ahead anyway. It is a hard teaching when Jacobs tells us that many well-meaning white women participated in the destruction of aboriginal families. It is a harder teaching when she shows that some of the maternalists were not even well-meaning. I read this work mainly to tone up my treatments of matters aboriginal in my course on the history of Australia & New Zealand, but I learned a fair bit that was new in regard to American Indian history, too.
September 7, 2023
I agreed with the book's overall argument but it also felt in points that the author was more interested in white women's overall actions, complicity, and journeys than in those of Indigenous people. I was more interested in learning about the later.
I was also surprised, having read Canadian material on similar topics, how little attention that was given to abuse of children in Australian and American equivalents to residential schools. I wonder if this reflects historical documents of the period?
The 1960s material about Indigenous activism and the ongoing impact on contemporary families gets put in the epilogue, which is too bad as it was among the most interesting sections in the book.
Still, it's a well researched and cohesive look and contrast between American and Australian practices of child removal, and points to the negative similarities of colonial experience in places where the British empire ruled.
I was also surprised, having read Canadian material on similar topics, how little attention that was given to abuse of children in Australian and American equivalents to residential schools. I wonder if this reflects historical documents of the period?
The 1960s material about Indigenous activism and the ongoing impact on contemporary families gets put in the epilogue, which is too bad as it was among the most interesting sections in the book.
Still, it's a well researched and cohesive look and contrast between American and Australian practices of child removal, and points to the negative similarities of colonial experience in places where the British empire ruled.
January 20, 2021
This is a really thick book, but it is so valuable. This is a comparative history of US and Australia's indigenous child removal policies. It demonstrates how these policies were intrical to the settler colonialism project. Officials wanted to break the connections indigenous children had with their culture and the land. The author is also more keenly interested in the role white women played in promoting these policies and working within institutions. More often than not, white women sought to gain authority and power at the expense of Indigenous womens' rights.
Like I said, this is an immensely important work. It's well written and not hard to understand. If you have the time, give it a shot. Just be aware there are disturbing details when it comes to the violence of child removal, physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse.
Like I said, this is an immensely important work. It's well written and not hard to understand. If you have the time, give it a shot. Just be aware there are disturbing details when it comes to the violence of child removal, physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse.
December 13, 2021
MONUMENTAL
February 16, 2022
A must read.
June 27, 2022
i just wish she had also written about canada
December 12, 2013
I knew this book would be hard to read because I know the outline of the story here. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, white Americans and Australians practiced a new strategy to obtain and secure large territories that had been occupied by indigenous peoples: they labeled indigenous homes, families, and mothers 'deficient' and 'pathological,' and sought to 'save' children in those communities by kidnapping them and sending them to orphanages, missions, and boarding schools. The whole business is an atrocity; in Australia, along with all of the other despicable practices, it amounted to near-genocide. Jacobs addresses this terrible and shameful history, pointing out where the US and Australia diverged and where they took the same unbelievable path. "White Mother to a Dark Race" is full of detail, oral histories and memoirs, not enough photographs, and thorough research. I found myself shaking my head throughout and wondering 'how can people do this to each other?' Racism, ethnocentrism, greed, and the dangerous 'missionary zeal,' just to start. How horrible.
September 7, 2010
"It's time to discard the Band Aids, remove the blindfolds, and squarely confront our pasts." -Margaret Jacobs (433)
Jacobs' comparative work focuses on the indigenous removal policies of Australia and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She argues that the policies of child removal and boarding schools were not a matter of education, but more an attempt to assimilate the indigenous cultures into the larger colonial nations. This argument is not new, but her comparative and gendered approach to these polices provide new critical understandings about these removal policies. Focusing on the role of white women and maternalist concepts of the time, Jacobs shows us the inherit paradox of removing children from "unfit" mothers, yet inherently breaking the familial bonds so sacred to these women and maternalist thought. A truly thought-provoking read!
I suggest this for all who are interested in comparative ethnohistory and indigenous policy through a gendered lens.
Jacobs' comparative work focuses on the indigenous removal policies of Australia and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She argues that the policies of child removal and boarding schools were not a matter of education, but more an attempt to assimilate the indigenous cultures into the larger colonial nations. This argument is not new, but her comparative and gendered approach to these polices provide new critical understandings about these removal policies. Focusing on the role of white women and maternalist concepts of the time, Jacobs shows us the inherit paradox of removing children from "unfit" mothers, yet inherently breaking the familial bonds so sacred to these women and maternalist thought. A truly thought-provoking read!
I suggest this for all who are interested in comparative ethnohistory and indigenous policy through a gendered lens.
March 14, 2013
It was an interesting read. However the repetition detracted for the flow and readability of the book, not to mention made it significantly longer than necessary. Nevertheless the comparison of the US and Australian indigenous policy was wonderful and allowed for a much broader understanding of policy and regulation of motherhood. There were a lot of generalizations without any of statistical analysis, even though the data is available for the US policies.
December 25, 2014
Probably the most heartbreaking book I've ever read. Jacobs compares the policies of Indian removal in American and Australia and powerfully shows that a "benevolent" form of colonialism still had brutal results.
September 10, 2011
I want to read more of this, I've only read chunks from the middle. It seems extremely useful and still obviously relevant.
October 10, 2014
Do watch Tracey Moffatt's "Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy" after reading this. There are no words to speak of these traumas.
February 13, 2015
Clearly, if you are one of the Indigenous Children, you'll want to read this history
April 13, 2017
Excellent, well-researched examination of white women reformers who screwed over indigenous women and families in order to secure some modest advances for themselves. I especially appreciated the chapter detailing how child removal and boarding schools advanced the settler colonial agenda.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews