Kevin Schürer

John Leech, ‘Bits from the mining districts‘ (1868).

The John Leech cartoon above, published in 1868 and entitled Bits from the mining districts, bears the following caption: 

First polite native – ‘Who’s ‘im, Bill?’ 

Second polite native – ‘A stranger!’ 

First polite native – ‘ ‘Eave ‘arfa brick at ‘im’.

Whilst obviously sarcastic, the underlying context is clear. Outsiders – those not from these parts – are treated with caution, if not distrust and open hostility. Yet mining communities, often being mono-cultural in terms of employment, were known for being tight-knit, closed, maybe inward looking, and the stranger of this cartoon was not only ‘not from these parts’, but also clearly socially distant judging from the way he is dressed.  Yet, how wide-ranging were such notions of xenophobia – literally fear of strangers – in the past?  

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