Assignment: Slavery and Indentured Labourers
INTRODUCTION
The introduction of Indian contractual workers by individual planters during the British period started between 1820 and early 1830s. Arrival registers of the Indian Immigration Archives (MGI) testify that labourers from the Indian Peninsula disembarked in Mauritius as from 1842 and originated from Colombo, Cochin, Pondicherry, Madras and Calcutta. These experimental importations of local planters were an evident means of overcoming the acute shortage of labour arising in the colony.
The Importance of Slave Labour
The slave trade which flourished in the 18th century, was attacked by reformers in Britain and in 1787, a society for its abolition was instituted in England. In the face of mounting opposition against slavery and the conditions of slaves on plantations, William Pitt, the British Prime Minister, tabled a motion in Parliament in 1792 to gradually abolish slavery. In 1807, the shipping of slaves to British colonies was forbidden and in 1808, the slave trade was prohibited. When in 1810, the British took over the island, slave trade became illegal. In 1834, British abolished slavery. It is phased out on the island under a transition period known as “apprenticeship”.
However, in Mauritius and elsewhere, the sugar plantation economy since its inception had depended, for its success and profitability, on plentiful, cheap, coercible and disciplined labour force. Slave labour had, for centuries, been the backbone of the plantation colonies of the Caribbean.
In 1835, Indentured labour system introduced. In subsequent decades hundreds of thousands of workers arrive from India. Mauritius was the first British Colony to embark on the ‘Great Experiment’ of importing an indentured labour workforce from the sub continent. Since the proclamation of the abolition of slavery in 1833, there was the urgent need to replace the local labourers liberated from slavery by an indentured workforce. This workforce later on became a majority population group.
The introduction of Indian contractual workers by individual planters during the British period started between 1820 and early 1830s. Arrival registers of the Indian Immigration Archives (MGI) testify that labourers from the Indian Peninsula disembarked in Mauritius as from 1842 and originated from Colombo, Cochin, Pondicherry, Madras and Calcutta. These experimental importations of local planters were an evident means of overcoming the acute shortage of labour arising in the colony.
The Importance of Slave Labour
The slave trade which flourished in the 18th century, was attacked by reformers in Britain and in 1787, a society for its abolition was instituted in England. In the face of mounting opposition against slavery and the conditions of slaves on plantations, William Pitt, the British Prime Minister, tabled a motion in Parliament in 1792 to gradually abolish slavery. In 1807, the shipping of slaves to British colonies was forbidden and in 1808, the slave trade was prohibited. When in 1810, the British took over the island, slave trade became illegal. In 1834, British abolished slavery. It is phased out on the island under a transition period known as “apprenticeship”.
However, in Mauritius and elsewhere, the sugar plantation economy since its inception had depended, for its success and profitability, on plentiful, cheap, coercible and disciplined labour force. Slave labour had, for centuries, been the backbone of the plantation colonies of the Caribbean.
In 1835, Indentured labour system introduced. In subsequent decades hundreds of thousands of workers arrive from India. Mauritius was the first British Colony to embark on the ‘Great Experiment’ of importing an indentured labour workforce from the sub continent. Since the proclamation of the abolition of slavery in 1833, there was the urgent need to replace the local labourers liberated from slavery by an indentured workforce. This workforce later on became a majority population group.