Colonial officials feared native domestic influence over European children more than skills gaps

Evidence

Here was a colonial utopia in which European women were key actors and staged to take charge: as wives, mothers, and moral instructors. It was a “futuristic picture” haunted by what officials most feared: the in- fluence of native nursemaids and native mothers. … The appeal of the plan again spoke to more than the acquisition of specific labor skills. This was a formula for shaping appropriate sentiments and limited desires. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 708

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ piece on moral panics as identity signaling, and to colonial domesticity literature on native nursemaids.
• ADDENDUM: The fear of native nurses shaping Dutch children’s language and manners parallels the moral instruction themes in ‘Grafting & Growth’ about family as formative infrastructure.