Colonial parents resisted forced separation by framing it as moral ruin

Evidence

We would like to turn your Majesty’s high attention to an institution that has already wounded so many parents deep in their heart; that has made so many children born in the Indies unhappy; has destroyed the future of all who receive their upbringing in [the Indies]; and is horribly affecting the moral and religious state of society… . [The Royal Decree of 1842 forces parents to send] their children away some thousands of miles from them at a very early age and to entrust them to the care of strangers and to exclude themselves from contributing to their moral formation, education and intellectual development. Experience has taught what the consequences of this are and many of the undersigned have all too painfully felt this most insufferable parental grief. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 514

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to reader’s interest in colonial archival petitions as sites of epistemic contestation over what counts as governance.