THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF ALTERITY: THE ABSENCE OF EXPLICIT RACISM IN THE WORK OF BISHOP WILLIAM TAYLOR AND HIS ABOLITIONIST STANCE

Abstract

This article examines the language employed by William Taylor—missionary and, in the final stage of his career, Methodist bishop—in fourteen of his published works written between 1860 and 1898. The study aims to determine whether, and to what extent, these texts reflect convictions of ethnic or racial supremacy or, alternatively, abolitionist commitments. Methodologically, the analysis focuses on the presence and usage of key terms such as: culture, civilization, civil, civilized, religion, religions, negro, negroes, niggers, heathen, heathens, heathenish, heathenism, heathendom, pagan, pagans, pagan (ad.) race, races, idol, idols, idolatry, idolaters, idolatrous, empire, empires. The findings suggest that, during a period marked by European and U.S. expansionism and imperialism—especially in southern Africa following the Berlin Conference of 1885—and amid the rise of new colonial ideologies and scientific racism, Taylor largely refrained from using the racist language prevalent in many missionary agency publications. The article argues that this linguistic restraint both reflects and seeks to disseminate his deep abolitionist convictions, which he regarded as integral to the Christian missionary vocation.