Ngāpuhi cut down the British flagstaff at Kororāreka

Seven men were convicted after a second trial concerning the Myall Creek killings. Testimony and renewed prosecution overcame an earlier acquittal. The result challenged the practical impunity of...

Seven men convicted of killing Wirrayaraay people at Myall Creek were hanged. The rare punishment shows a limited breach in the tolerance of colonial violence. It did not end dispossession or the...

Māori leaders signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi alongside Crown representatives. The Māori and English texts differed in important understandings of authority. Later struggles drew on promises of protection...

The United States Supreme Court recognized the freedom of Africans who had been illegally transported and had resisted aboard the Amistad. Their own revolt and testimony were essential to the case....

A confrontation followed settlers’ attempts to assert control over disputed land at Wairau. Ngāti Toa leaders contested the claimed sale. The deaths and subsequent controversy showed that settler...

Forces associated with Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti attacked Kororāreka and cut down the British flagstaff again. The conflict challenged the extension of Crown authority. Māori were not a single...

British forces attacked Puketutu during the Northern War. Māori defensive works and military strategy complicated the colonial advance. The conflict belonged to a struggle over authority after the...

A British assault on the pā at Ōhaeawai suffered severe losses. Defenders’ fortifications were designed to withstand artillery and expose attackers. The outcome challenges colonial claims of...

British and allied Māori forces entered Ruapekapeka after a siege; fighting continued outside the pā. The war ended without a straightforward destruction of Ngāpuhi authority. Its sophisticated...

After federal officers arrested Shadrach Minkins in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act, activists removed him from the courthouse and helped him escape. Collective action directly challenged a law...