‘White man’s laws’

In this chapter, a range of racial attitudes are considered by way of a study of relations between Aborigines and Europeans in one area between the 1850s and the 1900s. Like other civilising agents, William Thomas was also concerned to preach ‘against the crime of drunkenness’ and teach them ‘white man’s laws’, in particular what he called ‘the equity of our laws against one taking the life of another’. Thomas, missionaries and the Central Board for the Protection of the Aborigines petitioned government to amend the criminal system to mitigate ‘the severity of our laws’. The majority shared this manner of racial thinking, but rejected the implications drawn by their fellow jurors, asserting that the ‘blackfellow was as intelligent as a white and that his education was equally as good, and arguing that he had had the same opportunities in mingling with the whites of learning the penalties attached to certain crimes’; as such, they could not recommend any special consideration.