Immigrant Labourers

INDENTURED SERVANTS AFTER EMANCIPATION

 THE AIMS OF IMMIGRATION

1) Balance the African- European ratio if they could get more Europeans to migrate to
the Caribbean
2) Create an extra supply an extra supply of labourers
3) Lower wages by setting up competition for jobs
4) Save the sugar industry and expand it
 Inter- territorial Migration

Many labourers migrated to other Caribbean islands as follows:

1) South from Antigua , Nevis, Montserrat and St. Kitts

2) Grenada, St. Lucia, St Vincent and Dominica and the Turks and Caicos to Trinidad
and British Guiana
3) From Bahamas to British Guiana
4) Cuba and Suriname to Barbados
The reasons for inter regional migration

a) The ex slaves knew they could get higher wages outside their own territory
b) It was easy to travel to neighbouring islands and they were relatively close to each
other
Immigrant Groups that came after
Emancipation
1) African Americans from Delaware, Maryland , New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania
went to Trinidad and Jamaica in 1839.
2) African - Canadians came to Jamaica from 1841- 1845
3) Portuguese from the Azores went to Trinidad in 1834
4) Germans came to Jamaica in 1835
5) Portuguese from Madeira went to Guiana between 1835- 1847
6) The Maltese migrated to Grenada in 1839
7) Indentured labourers also migrated from the Canary Islands, Azores, Cape Verde Islands
8) Liberated Africans from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gambia, St. Helena and the Kroo Coast
began in the 1840s
Immigrant Groups that came after
Emancipation
9) East Indians immigration began in 1838

10) Chinese immigration began in the 1850s

11) Javanese , Japanese and the Annamites from Cochin China were among other groups
to migrate to the Caribbean in the post emancipation era.
 The terms of the Contract

a) Indentured servants should work every day of the week except Sunday and public
holidays
b) Days spent in jail or the gaol had to be made up at the end of the contract
c) Field workers had to work for 7 hours while the factory worker had to work for 10
hours
d) Rent free housing
e) Free medicine and hospitalization
f) Free return passage on completion of the contract , this changed in 1854
g) In 1848 contracts were signed for 3 years and in 1850 contracts of 5 years were
allowed
Difficulties faced by the Indentured Servants

a) Separation from families

b) Difficulty adjusting to a strange country
c) Difficulty communicating with their employers and other residents
d) Health standards were low because of poor housing , little sanitation and poor
state of water supply
e) Diseases such as malaria and hookworm, typhoid fever, yellow fever ,
dysentery, anaemia and mental illness.
Difficulties Faced by Indentured Servants

F) ill treatment , physical abuse

G)The living conditions were poor , ventilation was poor and there was overcrowding and a
lack of privacy in the “ lodgies or “ranges”
H) The diet of the immigrants was poor
I) No redress for a breach of contract
j) Shortage of Indian women was a source of conflict among migrant males between 1859-63.
 The Protector of Immigrants

An immigration Department headed by a Protector of Immigrants ( Agent General was

set up in each colony after 1838. They were to receive labour requests for labourers
from planters, receiving new immigrants and examining their condition and checking to
ensure that the planters and immigrants fulfilled the terms of the contracts.

Their supervision proved to be inadequate because of the remoteness of the estates

and difficulty reaching them. They experienced communication problems, they turned a
blind eye to offending employers. Some officials were lazy and did not care about the
worker’s interests.