The Strange Case of the Schooner Seaflower: Law and Business in Colonial Halifax, 1749-1764

James Muir 

This paper explores the ways in which owners, masters and workers went to court in the eighteenth-century British colonial world through an in-depth study of a series of cases in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from 1749 to 1765. The paper follows in particular cases involving a schooner named the Seaflower. Using records from various civil courts, it draws attention to the ways in which the court played a role in both day-to-day and exceptional relations between the colonial state, business and labor.

[WP # 99024]