A Commissioner's Day: Quantitative approaches to the study of evidence in royal commissions of inquiry. (1st April 2021) - Parkinson, Naomi
Abstract: This article uses statistical data gathered from digitized and indexed journals to quantify the identity, status, purpose, and impact of visitors to a series of Royal Commissions of Inquiry dispatched to the Cape and Mauritius from 1823. The 1819–38 Commissions of Inquiry were unprecedented in their scope and unparalleled in their impacts. They generated an archive spanning over 150, 000 handwritten pages and recommended the complete overhaul of legal systems; colonial governance and systems of slavery on the basis of their findings. Yet, making sense of this enormous archive and understanding whose testimony shaped empire-wide reform remains a daunting task. Here, we focus on one small, but significant, portion of that archive: commissioners' journals of proceedings. By collating, analysing, and visualizing data on names, status, gender, and topics of inquiry, we test the value of these documents as a frame to navigate the wider archive and to explore patterns in who was attending commissions, how often, and how their testimony was received. In contextualizing this data, we identify different rhythms of inquiry within and between colonies and conclude that a quantitative approach enabled us to test hypotheses based on archival research and uncover previously hidden patterns leading to new lines of future inquiry.