Francis Williams’s Bad Language: Historical Geography in a World of Practice

Abstract

Iwant to begin with a particular moment. In November 1724 two men met in the street in Spanish Town, Jamaica: William Brodrick, pillar of the legal and governmental establishment of the island, a former attorney general and the king’s appointee as sergeant-at-law; and Francis Williams, a free black man. They traded insults and blows. Brodrick claimed thatWilliams had come “towards him in a passion.” Brodrick had raised a hand to fend him off, and Williams had struck him, torn his shirt and neck cloth, called him a “White Dog” several times and with “many opprobrious words” had told Brodrick that he was as good a man as him. In turn, Brodrick repeatedly called Williams a “Black Dog,” and left him with a bloody mouth.1 What do we have here? An event, a situated moment, a moment that is later retold and written down in dramatic terms in order to address the questions of what happened? Who caused what? And what does it all mean? It was an exchange of words, but there is more going on here than just language. Along with the name-calling, there are passions raised, blows struck, a split lip and torn clothes. There are bad intentions. There is anger. There is damage done. The encounter, the moment, is affective, embodied, situated and dramatic. Borrowing my title from the anthropologist and historian Greg Dening’s book Mr Bligh’s Bad Language, I want to argue that Francis Williams’s bad language, and that of William Brodrick, can only be understood if we recognize that it is about more than just

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