#ForcedLabour
A New System of Slavery ?
Following the emancipation of slaves in 1833, and the period of unpaid apprenticeship that followed, many liberated Africans left their former masters. For the owners of sugar-cane plantations, who required a regular, docile and low-waged labour force, this appeared to spell economic disaster. Britain was forced to look elsewhere for cheap labour and turned its attention for a brief period to China, and then to India.
The solution came in the form of a new system of forced labour, which in many ways resembled enslavement. Indians, under an 'indentured' or contract labour scheme, began to replace enslaved Africans on plantations across the British empire, in Fiji, Natal, Burma, Ceylon, Malaya, British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad.
The Contract
In 1836, the first Indians arrived in British Guiana. Under a scheme ordered by Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies, a civil contract between Britain and Indian workers was drawn up for an initial period of five years. In the early phase, Indians were treated as inhumanely as the enslaved Africans had been. They were confined to their estates and paid the pitiful sum of 1 shilling per day. Any breach of contract brought automatic criminal penalties of two months' imprisonment or a fine of £5.
In 1838 a special magistrate, Charles Anderson, wrote to the Colonial Secretary declaring that 'with few exceptions they [the Indians] are treated with great and unjust severity, by overwork and by personal chastisement'. Plantation owners enforced the regulations so harshly that, according to historian Hugh Tinker, 'the decaying remains of immigrants were frequently discovered in cane fields...'. If labourers did not work, they were not paid or fed: they simply starved. Importing contract labour from India was suspended in 1840.
The People
After the supply of Indian contract labour was cut off, a few Europeans were imported, but they were by no means sufficient for the task: 105 European men landed in St Lucia in 1843. At this point, the disgruntled plantation owners, deprived of their enslaved workforce, pleaded with the colonial government to find a fresh supply of labour.
Lord Stanley experimented with schemes for bringing in Chinese people from British settlements in Malacca, and Africans from Sierra Leone. These yielded few results, however, and Lord Stanley reinstated immigration from India. This time an Act was passed to protect the well-being of the Indian immigrants. Provision was made for basic housing, food rations, clothing and wages, on a task basis, for these immigrants.
A New System of Slavery ?
Following the emancipation of slaves in 1833, and the period of unpaid apprenticeship that followed, many liberated Africans left their former masters. For the owners of sugar-cane plantations, who required a regular, docile and low-waged labour force, this appeared to spell economic disaster. Britain was forced to look elsewhere for cheap labour and turned its attention for a brief period to China, and then to India.
The solution came in the form of a new system of forced labour, which in many ways resembled enslavement. Indians, under an 'indentured' or contract labour scheme, began to replace enslaved Africans on plantations across the British empire, in Fiji, Natal, Burma, Ceylon, Malaya, British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad.
The Contract
In 1836, the first Indians arrived in British Guiana. Under a scheme ordered by Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies, a civil contract between Britain and Indian workers was drawn up for an initial period of five years. In the early phase, Indians were treated as inhumanely as the enslaved Africans had been. They were confined to their estates and paid the pitiful sum of 1 shilling per day. Any breach of contract brought automatic criminal penalties of two months' imprisonment or a fine of £5.
In 1838 a special magistrate, Charles Anderson, wrote to the Colonial Secretary declaring that 'with few exceptions they [the Indians] are treated with great and unjust severity, by overwork and by personal chastisement'. Plantation owners enforced the regulations so harshly that, according to historian Hugh Tinker, 'the decaying remains of immigrants were frequently discovered in cane fields...'. If labourers did not work, they were not paid or fed: they simply starved. Importing contract labour from India was suspended in 1840.
The People
After the supply of Indian contract labour was cut off, a few Europeans were imported, but they were by no means sufficient for the task: 105 European men landed in St Lucia in 1843. At this point, the disgruntled plantation owners, deprived of their enslaved workforce, pleaded with the colonial government to find a fresh supply of labour.
Lord Stanley experimented with schemes for bringing in Chinese people from British settlements in Malacca, and Africans from Sierra Leone. These yielded few results, however, and Lord Stanley reinstated immigration from India. This time an Act was passed to protect the well-being of the Indian immigrants. Provision was made for basic housing, food rations, clothing and wages, on a task basis, for these immigrants.