The Queen vs Ah Pew: Murder, mystery and controversy in colonial Castlemaine

Journal article

Mountford, Ben. (2008). The Queen vs Ah Pew: Murder, mystery and controversy in colonial Castlemaine. Victorian Historical Journal. 79(1), pp. 39 - 59.
AuthorsMountford, Ben
Abstract

This paper sets out to recover the significance of The Queen vs Ah Pew, a dramatic 19th-century murder case in which a Chinese miner was accused of the brutal killing of a local school girl on the central Victorian goldfields. The murder, and the subsequent trial, shook the colony of Victoria and dragged questions of colonial justice and Chinese social integration out into the open. Taking a micro-historical approach and chasing interweaving paper trails through the archives, this article follows a general trend in Chinese Australian history towards close readings of communities and locales. In doing so, it encourages the reader to approach history from the ground up and to seek broader understandings through human stories.

Year2008
JournalVictorian Historical Journal
Journal citation79 (1), pp. 39 - 59
PublisherRoyal Historical Society of Victoria
ISSN1030-7710
Open accessOpen access
Page range39 - 59
Research GroupSchool of Arts
Publisher's version
Place of publicationAustralia
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