Official colonial histories sanitized violence by omitting European atrocities and labor grievances.

Evidence

Schadee’s story reduces the Luhmann family assailants to a gang of itinerant thieves. Torture is not at issue: European atrocities and labor grievances are not mentioned. Valck’s condemnation of Luhmann’s behavior and his suspicions about the close link between vagabondage and assaults are nowhere to be found. In faithful colonial format, Schadee celebrates the restoration of order, with the culprits identified and troubles overcome. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1227

Categorization

• XREF: Directly matches the narrative-erasure dynamics in ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ and postcolonial historiography critiques. — connects to: Only atrocities against Europeans, not colonial ones, were held to discredit civilization-talk. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 103; National museums omit annihilated groups, erasing their claim to the nation — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 135
• SEED: Angle: how official archives retroactively convert labor rebellion into mere criminality via narrative genre conventions.