The Caribbean in Motion:

Emancipation, Migration
and East Indian
Indentureship

Dave Gosse, Ph.,D

 Introduction
 The end of slavery was not the end of the
various forms of servitude for many of
the newly freed persons in the region.
 The period following slavery however,
marked a time of change and adjustment
for the Caribbean as a whole.
 This lecture examines the apprenticeship
system and the impact of emancipation
within the region.
 The Apprenticeship Act
 After the Emancipation Act of 1833 in the
British Parliament the local colonial
Assemblies deliberately argued that the
freed slaves had no desire to work on
their former estates.
 Many of the planters believed that the
former enslaved would become idle and
less industrious and as such they would
have to be firm to ensure they own survival
 The Apprenticeship Act - cont
 The planters view was largely racist
 They argued that if they left the estates the
Africans would return to the bushes &
forests and 'barbaric' similar to West Africa.
 The freedmen needed time to adjust to
wage earning & to inculcation as thrifty &
responsible persons
 Religiously the freedmen still needed
Christianity to further moralize them.
 The Apprenticeship Act - cont
 This was another ploy to provide the
planters with an additional period of
servile labour.
 It was dubbed a social experiment to
teach “habits of industry” and wage
earning
 It was another economic measure to
secure, in the short run, a continued
supply of servile labour.
 Conditions of Apprenticeship
 All enslaved under 6 yrs, were to be
immediately freed.
 A compulsory 40 hrs per week, without
wages, until 1st August 1840.
 Work done over the 40 hrs was to be paid.
 Persons working in homes should be full-
time, with an earlier release date of August
1838.
 Person willing to purchase their freedom
were to be allowed.
 Stipendiary Magistrates
 They were appointed to oversee the
system & to silence the abolitionist critics.
 They were responsible for regulating
punishments for the freedmen, & curtailing
possible abuses by the former 'master
class‘.
 This system was doomed to fail as the
Assemblies in charge of implementation
were comprised former slave planters &
merchants.
 Stipendiary Magistrates - cont

 The abuses were far too many to be

effectively handled by the few stipendiary
magistrates.
 It was hard for many of them to do their
jobs without collusion with the planters.
 The local white planters saw
apprenticeship only in the context of
additional compensation package for the
abolition of British Caribbean slavery.
 Stipendiary Magistrates - cont
 The £20 million promised to the white
planters whet their appetites for more
profit out of a system which, at all levels of
assessment, was one of the greatest
known crimes against humanity.
 No attempt was made to include
freedmen in wage & labor bargaining.
 As a result, resentment & mistrust resulted
& the scheme was eventually abandoned
& full freedom granted in 1838.
 Securing Labour
 The planters anticipated a widespread
removal of labour from the estates.
 Thus, they instituted measures to force
the newly freed people to remain on the
estates
 For example, indebtedness
 High rents and charges on items that the
newly freed had enjoyed, without direct
payment, during enslavement.
 For eg, housing & provision grounds.
 Securing Labour

 Charging rent failed to secure the quantity

of labour that the plantations needed.
 The freed people who could not pay or
who refused to pay were evicted
 Planters often evicted freed people who
chose to work on other estates other than
those on which they resided.
 A secure and dependable labor supply
was not encouraged by the planters
 Securing Labour
 By 1841, some colonial governments
decided to separate rents from wages.
 In islands, like St. Kitts & Nevis, the
planters continued tying wages & rent
 This practice did not end until the 1850s.
 The planters realized that in order to
attract good labourers, especially,
skilled labourers, they had to now pay
reasonable wages paid to freedmen.
 Many planters were unwilling to do so
 Securing Labour
 In Guyana & Trinidad task work became
common as a labour strategy
 The Africans also had a strategy. To
work only 2 or 3 days of the week on
the estates.
 They spent the other days in their own
fields knowing the unwillingness of the
planters to pay good wages
 With such a strategy the planters
would be forced to pay them more to
work for the week
 Securing Labour
 In Guyana by 1844, only 30 % of African
labour available in 1834, was available
 In the Leeward islands, where the wages
were lower, the freedmen emigrated to
territories like Trinidad & Guyana for higher
wages.
 The colonial governments even prevented the
purchase of public lands - (320 acres in
Trinidad, 640 acres in British Guiana).
 This was to ensure the Africans would not
become to independent
 Securing labour
 The planters measures resulted in large-scale
exodus of Africans from the plantations
 Where there was ample land for provision
grounds there was a larger exodus from the
estates (Jamaica, Trinidad & Guyana)
 Where little land available, they stayed or
migrated in large numbers to other islands
 The Africans would no longer work cheaply as
they were now free


 Securing Labour
 The poor management strategies of the
planters to procure sufficient African labour
led to labour shortages on their estates
 There was no labour probem as argued by
some historians
 Many planters sold cane lands to the workers
to reduce their expenses
 This exacerbated their labour problems as the
freedmen now had land of their own to devote
their time and energies.
 The Sugar Duties Act

 The Sugar Duties Act, in 1846, ended the

protected market for West Indian sugar.
 This increased competition & beet sugar
resulted in the decreased price of sugar on
the London market.
 The planters profits also declined.
 The planters found it increasingly difficult to
raise more credit to finance their sugar
estates
 Maintaining Competitive Sugar Prices

 Other problems further exacerbated the

industry:
 exhausted soils,
 poor production methods,
 absenteeism
 lack of capital investment.
 Problem of labour – Poor management
 Thus, many economists in Britain argued
that Caribbean sugar should no longer
warrant protectionism.
 Maintaining Competitive Sugar Prices

 These economists argued that the market

should decide the fate of Caribbean sugar
 They called for the elimination of
preferential duties on BWI sugar.
 They were supported by powerful British
lobbyists advocating free trade.
 They all argued that international free
trade would lower prices to the British
consumers.
 Solving 'The Labour Issue' in the
19th Century
 By 1848, the Caribbean territories,
especially the larger territories, were in dire
need of labour.
 The planters were unwilling to allow the
market to determine their future.
 They wanted to be able to manipulate
labour through restrictive contracts
 Thus it became necessary to once again
turn to indentureship.
 Labour Schemes in the Nineteenth
Century
 Wit the assistance of the British
Government the importation of immigrant
labour began
 Walton Look Lai states from the 1830s to
1917, a total of 536,310 persons had
emigrated to the West Indies.
 Such labour would affect the Caribbean
positively and negatively with regards to
culture: race, class, colorisms & religion
 Labour Schemes in the Nineteenth
Century
 Indentured Labourers in the Caribbean.
 429,623 Indians 1838-1917
 40,971 Portuguese 1835-1881
 39,332 Freed Africans 1834-1867
 17,904 Chinese 1853-1884
 4,582 Europeans 1834-1845
 3,898 Others (mainly black Americans)
1835-1867
 Freed Africans
 The British Government provided funding
for freed Africans captured illegally.
 In 1835, 1,000 liberated Africans moved
from Cuba to Trinidad & planters wanted to
bring in more Africans from Sierra Leone.
 However Britain objected & feared it could
revive slavery.
 Moreover, there were not enough
immigrants to make the scheme successful
 Movement within the Caribbean
 An alternative to the freed Africans &
African-Americans was the movement of
Africans within the Caribbean.
 They also returned to poorer whites.
 This would provide the necessary example
of “industriousness” that the freed Africans
could emulate.
 They would also prevent the Africans from
obtaining land to ensure that their labour
would still be available
 White Immigrant Labour
 The importation of mass amounts
white labour failed.
 A few Portuguese arrived. Those in T & T
& Guyana, however, formed a influential
community
 In Jamaica, British, German & French
immigrants arrived but in small amounts.
 They had little experience in agriculture
 Most left the plantations and took up other,
non-agricultural jobs in the towns
 Chinese Immigrants
 As early as 1806, Chinese labourers were
imported. Many left the plantations to
become shopkeepers & gardeners.
 In 1850s, Chinese workers were again
imported.
 In T&T between 1853 & 1866, there were
about 2,500 Chinese immigrants .
 It was costly as the Chinese government
insisted on free return passage.
 Indian Indentureship
 Indian immigration scheme was however
successful.
 It began as a private venture of about
400 immigrants on a five-year contract
from Calcutta to John Gladstone's
plantation in Guyana in May 1838.
 Later recruits were actively sought out to
ensure that the immigrants properly
understood the contracts.
 Indian Indentureship - cont
 Because of widespread charges of coercion
the Governor General of India appointed a
'Protector of Emigrants'
 His role was to ensure seaworthy ships
were selected to transport the emigrants &
that they were embarking on a voluntary
basis.
 Local magistrates personally examined all
recruits to ensure they fully understood the
nature of their contracts.
 The Mechanics of Indian
Indentureship
 Indian Indentureship was part of a wider
contract scheme in many parts of the
world: eg, India, Australia, East Africa &
South Africa.
 While all immigrants signed contracts the
jobs performed & the remuneration varied.
 Men had better paying jobs while women
were used in the domestic sphere & in
marginal jobs in cocoa, sugar & banana.
 The Mechanics of Indian
Indentureship
 Indentureship stipulated that the labourer
was initially under a five-year work
obligation & had the 'option' to provide a
further five-year period of work.
 If the labourers chose not to re-indenture
themselves for the additional five years
then they had to pay a special tax.
 Only after the ten-year period had
expired were they guaranteed a return
passage back to India.
 The Mechanics of Indian
Indentureship
 The workers had restrictions such as a ticket
of leave if absent during work.
 Absence without the ticket was punishable
by fines or imprisonment.
 Under the Immigration Act of 1854, they
could be prosecuted on criminal charges.
 The planters’ ability to enforce criminal
sanctions from civil offence led to them
controlling another form of labour.
 Thus many Indians were treated as slaves
 Indentureship
 The Indians who came to T& T were from
Bengal, the United Provinces, and Madras.
 Many factors led them to the Caribbean:
 avoiding famine caused by drought.
 'running away' from problematic social
situations at home
 earning better revenue
 Hope of a better life when they returned
 Being forced or tricked into coming
 Indentureship
 Initially the planters wanted single males
 Women were less ideal as their children
under 16 could be indentured
 Pregnant & nursing mothers were
considered as additional burdens.
 Recruiters gave women shorter contracts,
from five to three years by the 1890s.
 Another strategy was that at least 40 % of
the new arrivals should be women.
 Immigration later became attractive to
women for their own independence
 Changes in the Immigrant
Community
 By the end of the 19th C most of the Indian
immigrants were now ‘free & decided to
reside in the colonies.
 They now shifted from the plantations to
separate villages to property 'owners where
they cultivated‘ their lands
 Many of the Indians practiced the crafts they
brought as others went into the retail trade &
into subsistence /peasant agriculture.
 Changes in the Immigrant
Community
 By the 1860s, Governor Sir Arthur Gordon
of T&T offered to sell Crown Lands at $10
per acre to the East Indians.
 From 1870 & 1915, about 80,000 acres
were sold to the immigrants who planted
rice, provisions, maize, peas, etc.
 The Indians moved into the export market,
like sugar cane & cocoa.
 In Guyana the immigrants ventured into the
gold & timber industries.
 Social and Cultural Problems
 The sugar market in the Caribbean
continued to decline largely from beet
sugar, ending in reduce wages.
 The nationalists in India campaigned to
end Indentureship in 1917.
 By then the Indian population who
remained were settled in the Caribbean.
 The period of race, class, religous and
economic conflicts among the races will
now define the 20th century Caribbean
Tutorial for the Week
 Conclusion
 The “labour problem” was as a result of
poor management by the planters
 In their desire to manipulate and control it
resulted in the abusive treatment of
Africans and later Indians.
 The planters by their ideas and practice
created the seed of racial dis-harmony
between blacks and Indians
 The Caribbean has been divided and still
suffers socially and economically