'Too Good to be True? Race, Class, Massacre and the Bryce v Rusden Libel Case'

Abstract

Though little remembered now, the 1886 Bryce v Rusden libel case was a significant legal collision, bringing to a head half a century of antagonism between those who approved of colonization and those who deplored its effects on indigenous peoples. The defendant in the case, George Rusden, lost, and was forced to pay enormous damages. Why, when his evidence was shaky, did Rusden publish his libels? And why did he make little attempt to correct or apologize for them when he discovered they were largely inaccurate? The answers lie in part in Rusden’s Australian background, and the complicated nexus of race, class and massacre that characterizes colonial history.