Proprietary Settler Colonialism and the Making of North America - (Economic Transformations) by Heather Whiteside (Hardcover)

About the Book

A fascinating examination of the activities of the joint-stock royal charter companies that established settlements in the British North American colonies and which were pivotal in shaping the political-economic transformation of early America and its capitalist evolution.

Book Synopsis

The mythic story of English America's origins has long focused on the Mayflower pilgrims and their 1620 democratic compact. Less well known are the activities of the leading joint-stock royal charter companies that established colonial settlements like those of the Virginia and Hudson's Bay Companies. Operating in ways often independent of the Crown, these for-profit companies established communities, trade routes and legal regimes in what Whiteside terms "proprietary settler colonialism", all of which were pivotal in shaping the political-economic transformation of British North American colonies and their capitalist evolution. The fortunes of these company colonies were built on unfree labour, the appropriation of land and displacement of Indigenous peoples. The book explores the consequences of colonizing companies' activities by connecting their historical significance to contemporary struggles for reconciliation, decolonization and reclamation.

Review Quotes

A vital, timely, complex, and insightful book which deftly weaves the threads property and jurisdiction, sovereignty and colonialism, corporate capital and accumulation to craft a foundational story of political economy that shapes so much of our current experience on both sides of the Canada/US border. A book of remarkable geographic scope and time depth, tracing how property is made and sovereignty exercised from diverse examples from historic Vancouver Island to modern-day metro Vancouver, New England to the Red River Colonies, and other places between. We come to understand how through the language of property (and its many distinct forms) that these Indigenous places have been transformed into something divisible and alienable, how land has become a speculative asset which launched capitalist states and markets, exploiting workers, and dispossessing Indigenous peoples. Whiteside's work is not just about history but helps us grasp the complex hybridity of the contemporary property regime that has grown across the continent, rooted in feudal land relations and now part of the tool kit of Indigenous peoples to reclaim, decolonize, and prosper in the future.--Brian Thom, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria

This book represents new and fascinating research into 'company colonies' and shows how critical private power has been to the project of settler colonialism in the Americas. What is so exciting about this text is how brilliantly it opens up possibilities for other researchers to understand the path dependence of colonization to the political economy of Canada and the United States today.--Shiri Pasternak, Associate Professor in Criminology, Ryerson University, Toronto, and former Research Director, Yellowhead Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University

In this exciting book, Heather Whiteside brings the English North American joint-stock royal charter companies into the colonial present, tracing their pivotal role in the reimagining of land, property and labour. No longer relics, the companies are resituated as integral to the colonial project.--Nicholas Blomley, Professor of Geography, Simon Fraser University

Whiteside's fascinating and timely analysis encourages important reflections on how the distinctive origins of North American capitalism inform its present. Imperialist land grabs, rapacious capitalist firms, blurred lines between public and private. Plus ça change?--Eric Helleiner, Professor and University Research Chair, Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo

About the Author

Heather Whiteside is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, Ontario and Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.