Natural History Discourse and Collections: The Roles of Collectors in the Southeastern Colonies of North America (2008)
During the eighteenth century, collections-based discourse was critical to the shift of British natural history from elite London pastime to scientific index. For specimen procurement, North American collectors were in demand, although distant patrons retained control of the data. In the colonies, commissioned collectors depended upon the British plantation system for hospitality, services, and access to property. Few braved wilderness, because, given European competition for Indian homelands, there were few unclaimed spaces along the Atlantic seaboard safe enough for scientific travelers. Diverse colonial flora and fauna heightened British interests in natural history, but these intellectual gains required a new force, the workforce. To promote the work ethic of the "worthy poor," law prohibited African slavery in the new colony of Georgia, but all sides knew whose labors created the coastal plantation system and its comfort zones.1 This paper examines the relationship of London patrons and North American collectors with attention to plantation-system environments, Quaker correspondence networks, and the scientific reforms of species classification.
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