Bailie's Party of 1820 Settlers. A collective experience in emigration

Squarish 8vo; blue cloth, letteredin gilt on spine, with publisher's gilt monogram to upper board; dustwrapper; pp. x + 174, incl. index; plates; maps; tables. Dustwrapper partially tanned and foxed, a little rubbed; bump to top fore-corner of lower board; occasional fox spot. Very good condition, in modest dustwrapper.

Uncommon study of an important 1820 Settler group. "Mrs Nash has examined the class distinctions within the Albany settlement, and challenges the traditional view of the settlers' struggle against the tyranny of colonial authority. She offers instead the bold suggestion that Albany politics between 1820 and 1825 centred upon a clash between two opposing interest groups among the settlers themselves: the would-be landed gentry of the Eastern Cape and the emergent entrepreneurs. This conflict was a reflection of significant differences in the organisation of the various emigrant parties. She illustrates her argument with a detailed analysis of one of the largest of the settler parties. Eighty-four men and their families, drawn mostly from the diversified 'middle ranks' of English society, sailed under the leadership of John Bailie. ... Recruited in London and organised on a basis of mutual co-operation, the party quarrelled and split before even reaching the Cape. Mrs Nash has followed the fortunes of all the individual members after its official dissolution, and has provided a full biographical appendix, based on an unusually wide range of primary sources, that will be a valuable reference tool for future researchers."