1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910480216003321

Autore

Dunk James

Titolo

Bedlam at Botany Bay / / James Dunk

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Sydney, New South Wales : , : NewSouth, , 2019

©2019

ISBN

1-74224-455-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (189 pages)

Disciplina

820.80994

994.41

Soggetti

Mental illness - Australia - Botany Bay (N.S.W.) - History - 19th century

Mentally ill - Australia - Botany Bay (N.S.W.) - History - 19th century

Penal colonies - Australia - Botany Bay (N.S.W.) - History - 19th century

Electronic books.

Sydney (N.S.W.) History 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

There is a wildness -- The liabilities of the sea -- Madness and malingering -- The 'lunatic asylum' at Castle Hill -- The politics of a penal colony -- Darling's suicides -- After the rebellion -- Wrongful confinement and irresponsible power -- Epilogue.

Sommario/riassunto

Madness stalked the colony of New South Wales and tracing its wild path changes the way we look at our colonial history.What happened when people went mad in the fledgling colony of New South Wales? In this important new history, we find out through the tireless correspondence of governors and colonial secretaries, the delicate descriptions of judges and doctors, the brazen words of firebrand politicians, and the heartbreaking letters of siblings, parents and friends. We also hear from the mad themselves. Legal and social distinctions faded as delusion and disorder took root — in convicts exiled from their homes and living under the weight of imperial justice, in ex-convicts and small settlers as they grappled with the country they had taken from its Indigenous inhabitants, and in government officers and wealthy colonists who sought to guide the course of European history in Australia.These stories of madness are woven together into a



narrative about freedom and possibilities, unravelling and collapse. Bedlam at Botany Bay looks at people who found themselves not only at the edge of the world, but at the edge of sanity. It shows their worlds colliding