Abstract
This chapter uses extracts from the personal letters of James Taylor, the "father of the Ceylon tea enterprise", to explore issues of colonial violence, perceptions of the "other", and human emotions. It positions the study of Taylor's views towards other people within the "biographical turn" and provides a succinct summary of key methodological concerns for the historical use of migrant letters. Interrogating graphic extracts from Taylor's letters about the Indian rebellion of 1857 and his views of diverse populations in South Asia, the chapter argues for the need to situate extracts from narrative accounts within broader temporal and contextual frameworks, and to consider alternative ways of reading such narratives, focusing in this case on the interdisciplinary study of emotions.