Oro, arghet och avbön. Känslokultur och rättskipning i fyra karolinska högmålsrättegångar

Abstract

The aim of this master’s thesis is to cast new light on the social conflicts of the Swedish Empire by examining the emotional practices of peasant protests and their prosecution during the 17th century. Through quantitative and qualitative content analysis of records from three commissions investigating resistance against utskrivningar in 1683, the study explores the emotional practices involved in the peasant resistance and in the state’s prosecution of the insubordinates. The thesis examines how the leaders of the resistance employed mobilising and communicative emotional practices to activate and unite the local peasantry in public demonstrations of dissent. The study shows that, during the trials, the commissioners stigmatized the insubordinate peasants by framing the protests in emotional terms as expressions of anger, contempt, and wickedness. Through the indictments, which involved naming, mobilising, and regulating emotional practices, the thesis argues that the commissioners successfully constrained and subdued the resistance by breaking the horizontal emotional bonds within the peasantry and enforcing the residents’ vertical bonds of loyalty towards the state and the king.