Domestic Colonialism in the Progressive Era? The Case of New York’s Labor Colonies

• In Event: 30821 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 13

Abstract

Recent scholarship asks scholars of colonialism to look again: what precisely is colonialism? This project examines the emergence of labor colony policy in the Progressive Era. By reading these domestic policy debates in conversation with the large body of scholarship on colonialism, this essay offers insights into the colonial legacies of welfare and criminal justice. Using archival data collected from 2019 to 2024, this project analyzes the emergence of labor colony policy as a popular policy intervention in Progressive Era New York. Following Barbara Arneil's scholarship to delineate colonialism from imperialism by focusing on the colony's roots in agriculture and cultivation, this essay examines how European labor colony policy transformed social welfare and criminal justice debates at the turn of the century in New York State and beyond. The essay offers hypotheses and ideas for further research that connect Progressive Era domestic labor colonies to criminal justice and welfare today.

Author

• Nicholas Croce, Syracuse University