Rebel Empire: Subjecthood and Rebellion in Britain’s Early Empire

Abstract

This dissertation examines rebellion as a structural and recurrent feature of the early modern British Empire. It argues that colonial uprisings from the 1670s to the 1690s were not ruptures from imperial allegiance but political acts embedded in a contested grammar of English subjecthood. In an empire defined by overlapping jurisdictions, legal pluralism, and improvised authority, subjects repeatedly invoked royal obligation and protection to contest local misrule. Rebellion became a mechanism through which imperial actors—settlers, soldiers, officials—asserted their place within the empire, challenged the legitimacy of devolved governance, and negotiated their political identity. Drawing on case studies from Virginia, Carolina, Maryland, St. Helena, and Bombay, the dissertation shows how rebels framed their resistance in the idioms of loyalty, law, and subject-rights. These episodes reveal a political culture in which subjecthood was not passively received but actively articulated through petitioning, remonstrance, and revolt. The study integrates legal, political, and imperial history to reconceptualize rebellion not as an interruption of order, but as a visible expression of its internal contradictions.