Colonial officials resisted truth-tellers by dismissing them as agitated exaggerators

Evidence

As Valck wrote his friend: “If you think I paint a darker picture of the situation, that I exaggerate, I repeat that the situation is as bad as it can be and this is due to a policy of leniency pursued for years toward the planters… . Believe me, Levyssohn! I don’t see the situation blacker than it is.” And again, with reference to the Augean stables and his own distraught state: “Don’t think that I write in a moment of agitation. I am totally calm but utterly indignant. Everyday I see more muck that needs to be cleaned up.” — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1103

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Even after residents mastered technical vocabulary, officials continued to dismiss them