“A Valuable Man” and “One of the Wisest and Best of Mankind”: Jeremy Bentham, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and Systematic Colonization
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article reexamines the relationship between Jeremy Bentham and Edward Gibbon Wakefield through the lens of one of Bentham’s last projects, “Colonization Company Proposal” (1831), and his support for Wakefield’s scheme of “systematic colonization.” Their intellectual encounter explains how key Benthamite principles were integrated into Wakefield’s influential vision, with lasting effects. While famous for opposing the penal colony in New South Wales, Bentham was persuaded by Wakefield’s principles of commodifying Indigenous land as the basis for restricting landownership in order to compel labor, foster civilization, and fund emigration. Bentham’s distinctive perspective emerges from a comparison of his commentary with the body of work published by the Wakefieldians between mid-1829 and 1831. In turn, after Bentham’s death in June 1832, Wakefield drew heavily from his ideas. Bentham’s and Wakefield’s shared investment in the entwined discourses of penal reform and systematic colonization legitimized Britain’s imperial reorientation toward colonization.
Source: Modern Intellectual History
Author: Jane Lydon
Institution: The University of Western Australia
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
OpenAlex ID: W4415988504