Thesis

The rites of violence : rough music, protest, atrocity and power, a comparative examination, Ulster and the Carolinas, 1760-1840

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2025
Thesis identifier
  • T17260
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 202150703
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • This thesis is dedicated to the evolution of ritual violence in the south-eastern American states of Ulster, Ireland, and presents a pioneering comparative analysis and discussion of the phenomena from 1760-1840. The analysis encompasses a comprehensive discussion of the diverse types of ritual violence, including rough music, traditional forms of violent protest, crowds and processions, property damage, ritual torture, and retribution. Section One examines significant movements of ritual violence from approximately 1760 until 1775, Section Two covers 1775 to 1800, and Section Three provides a broad discussion of major campaigns or notable incidents of ritual violence from 1800 until 1840. Each locale, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Ulster, are given separate chapters, except for Section Three, where a discussion of Carolinian violence is consolidated into one chapter. Through detailed discussion, this thesis demonstrates that the rites of extralegal violence are oriented towards attaining or the maintenance of authority or power. Authority is shown to include varied dimensions of social, religious, political, economic, or individual power. Although the use of ritual violence to obtain or sustain power is constant throughout this thesis, cultural practices demonstrated within the rites of violence evolve over time and through circumstance. To study this, the ‘Scots-Irish’, or Ulster Protestant settlement of the interior regions of North and South Carolina, presents an excellent opportunity to compare this evolution with ritual violence in Ulster, Ireland. While the rites of violence differed in many respects between Protestant Ireland and the Carolinas, there were similarities, particularly in the first and second periods of study. From 1760 through 1775, ritual violence, while shocking, was characterised by some form of implied restraint. Deaths were rare. By the 1780s, during the American Revolutionary War and the rise of sectarian violence in County Armagh, ritual violence often became deadlier. Rites were not always dictated by tradition but by circumstance and expedience. This was particularly true in the case of the sparsely populated interior of the Carolinas. Of consequence during this period is the emergence of retributive violence as a form of ritual, a significant and novel aspect that previous scholars have not wholly explored. This emergence of retributive violence marks a significant shift in the evolution of ritual violence. From 1800 until approximately 1840, the widest divergence in the application of ritual violence, rough music, and protest was found between the Carolinian states and Ulster. Whereas there was not an overarching campaign of violence to maintain political and social supremacy in the Carolinas until the emergence of the threat of slave revolt in the early 1830s, Ulster experienced waves of sectarian ritual brutality that was, in a sense, a continuation of the violence of the late eighteenth century. Similar themes only emerged in the Carolinas due to the threat of abolitionism. Despite the dissimilarity between the two, it is essential to note that many of the themes of restraint had disappeared in most, but not all, forms of ritual protest and violence.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Ellis, Mark, 1955-
  • Young, John R., 1967-
Resource Type
DOI

Relations

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details PDF of thesis T17260 2025-03-19 Public Download