Mansfield Park/Colony?

The title of the novel itself represents colonialism. Mansfield Park is shown as a place in the novel which is full of interactions between slaves and the slave owners. Mansfield Park is being depicted as a colony with Lord Bertram as the master. The novel was finished in 1813 by Austen when six years had passed to the abolition act of transatlantic slave trading. But the novel has been set to ‘about thirty years ago’ that was beginning of the abolition movement. This depicts the level of interest Austen showed in this controversy surrounding around abolitionism of slave trade and her interest is evident in the novel as well. For an instance in chapter 21 of the novel, Fanny talks to Edmund about Sir Thomas’s slave plantation is Antingua “did you not hear me ask him about the slave trade last night? - but there was such dead silence! “Sir Thomas and and the other Bertrams just sat in silence when Fanny asked this question from her uncle. Their indifference reflects disassociation of the upper class such as the Bertrams from the lives of the slaves, let alone talk about them.

Fanny is depicted as a slave in the novel who rises to her own freedom from her sense of morality. An analogy can be drawn between Fanny and Maria Edgworth’s black slave in her story “The Grateful Negro” (1804). On the other hand Mrs. Norris who can be compared to a slave trader from how she treats and thinks of Fanny, loses her power towards the end of the novel as laws are being passed that are reducing the powers available to slave owners and empowering slaves.

There are also instances in the novel where the Bertram girls express the female oppression that is evident in Mansfield Park. When Maria is visiting Mr. Rushworth’s home she comes across a locked gate and remarks: “that iron gate gives me a feeling of restraint and hardship, I cannot get out." The feelings of the Bertram girls show how Mansfield Park is accurately depicting the presence of slave trade In England. The way these girls gain freedom from this oppression themselves, however, is just sad.

How Fanny adapts to this by the end of the novel is rather surprising. She visits Portsmouth and on her way back chooses her sister Susan as a suitable companion for her to take back with her to Mansfield Park. It’s like Portsmouth is like a metropolis of a slave market from where she chooses the best one. Fanny is shown to have embraced imperialism.