Whistleblowing colonial officials had to pre-empt accusations of emotional agitation

Evidence

In the grim confidences he conferred on his “dearest friend Levyssohn,” then General Secretary to the Governor-General (and on other “high placed” persons with whom he spoke), he described the abuses of European planters, named names, and accused them of killing “in cold blood.” Begging his friend’s intervention, he insisted on his own selfcontrol, that he did not write “in a moment of agitation,” that he was “totally calm but utterly indignant. Everyday I see more much that needs to be cleaned up.” — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1428

Categorization

• QUESTION: The repeated self-policing gesture - insisting he is ‘totally calm’ - suggests that the charge of over-emotionality was the standard way to discredit colonial whistleblowers. Worth tracing.