Page 1 of 4 ST. HUGH’S HIGH SCHOOL CARIBBEAN HISTORY GRADE 11 Theme: Adjustments to Emancipation, 1838-1876 Objectives: 1. Account for the various schemes of migration as a solution to the problems of labour. [Schemes of migration: Europeans, Africans, Madeirans, Indians, Chinese]. Areas of Recruitment In the British Caribbean, British Guiana and Trinidad received the largest numbers of immigrants, followed by Jamaica. Self-sufficient Barbados was not affected by immigration. The French colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana, and the Dutch colony of Suriname also imported workers. India and China supplied the largest number of immigrants. There were also Free Africans from Sierra Leone, Kru Coast, Gambia and Liberia in addition to a number of Liberated Africans. Europeans migrants came primarily from Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Madeira, a Portuguese colony in the Atlantic, off Morocco. Reasons for Recruiting Immigrants With a reduction in their labour force in the immediate post-emancipation period many planters turned to immigrant labourers. Apart from the flight of labour from the estate, planter sought immigrant labourers for a number of reasons. These included the following: To maintain existing estates and increase production through expansion of the sugar industry. To increase the labour supply in response to the flight of labour from the estates. To increase the white population in order to reduce the overwhelming imbalance in the ratio between the white and the ex-slave population. To suppress wages as a large, reliable and steady labour force would reduce the bargaining rights of the ex-slaves. To restore the planter’s control over the labour population by getting a cheap, submissive, reliable set of resident, full-time workers. To force the ex-slaves to remain on the plantation as imported European labourers would reside in the established townships and have access to the more fertile lands. This would result in the ex-slaves being able to access only inferior lands, inadequate housing settlements and as a consequence would be forced to return to the estate to gain employment. Some proprietors could afford them; for example, those in Trinidad and British Guiana who were able to use much of their compensation money to finance immigration, since they, unlike planters in some of the older colonies, were not saddled with longstanding debts. The employment of immigrant labour on long term contracts seemed the only way of securing a steady labour force. Page 2 of 4 Immigrant Recruitment Schemes Liberated Africans After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, Britain signed ‘Right to Search’ treaties at different times with the governments of other countries, by which British vessels could intercept and search other vessels suspected of illegally carrying slaves. Slaves found on these vessels were taken to specially recognized ports at Sierra Leone (West Africa), St. Helena (in the Atlantic), Havana (Cuba) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). In 1836, the British government created the post of Superintendent of Liberated Africans at Havan. The superintendent’s task was to supervise the transshipment of liberated Africans to free British colonies. From Havan, West Africans were moved to Trinidad or to other British colonies expressing an interest in their services. In subsequent years, Trinidad and British Guiana appointed agents in Rio de Janeiro to facilitate the transshipment of liberated Africans from that port. After 1838, they were forcibly indentured for up to five years on British Caribbean plantations. In addition, in 1841, government-supervised importation of Africans from Sierra Leone began. These liberated Africans were imported because of the following reasons: They were landed directly in the Caribbean by the British warships that had rescued them. Many planters, already used to enslaved Africans, showed a preference for liberated Africans Many planters believed that Africans were stronger and better workers than any other ethnic group. Missionaries and timber merchants, in spite of their opposition to the immigration scheme, failed to discourage the West Africans from migrating. Africans Liberated Africans were those individuals rescued by British warships from slavers. They were not the only group of Africans who were used as a source of labour in the postemancipation period. Africans were also recruited to work as indentured workers in the Caribbean. In 1841, government-supervised emigration from Sierra Leone was organised. A government officer was appointed at Freetown to superise emigration procedures and regulations were adopted to prevent abuses. Attempts were also made to recruit in Gambia, on the Kru Coast and in Liberia. The colonial government of British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad sent recruiting agents to Africa. They tried to induce West Africans with offers of high wages and free return passages. The French took Congolese prisoners and shipped them to Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana. They were freed upon landing in the colonies. Private shps were chartered to carry the emigrants from Africa. Europeans Due to a decline in the white popultion planters sought European immigrants to increase the size of the white population. It was hoped that Europeans would set an example of industry to ex-slaves and eventually develop into a middle class. They would settle on available land in the interiro thus forcing the blacks off the land and back to the plantations. Jamaica imported the largest number of Europeans. They also went to Trinidad, British Guiana and St. Kitts. Page 3 of 4 These immigrants were mainly Scots, Irish, French and Germans. They were recruited under a bounty system. Europeans were unsatisfactory as most died when they arrived. They died from tropical diseases, heat stroke and many drank themsleves to death. They also refused to work alongside the blacks on the plantations. Many equated estate labour with slavery and believed that this category of work was best suited for blacks. Many asked to be sent home or migrated to the United States. Planters also failed to supply proper food, shelter and medical facilities. Portuguese Madeirans were paid only 3d per day in Madeira and were attracted by higher wages in the Caribbean. Many went to British Guiana and Trinidad but a few also went to the Windward Islands. They were brought in by government bounty. Most came during the periods of famine in Madeira 1846-1847. Many Portuguese immigrants saved their money and within three years of arrival usually left the estates. Chinese Chinese workers were also recruited to fill the void created by the flight of blacks from the plantation in the post-emancipation period. Large-scale immigration began in 1852 from the Chinese colony of Macao, in southern China. These immigrants were convicts or prisoners of war and ther were no women among them. Between 1854 and 1866, about 15,000 Chinese came to British Guiana, 4,800 to Jamaica and 2,600 to Trinidad. Most of them came from barracoons at Hong Kong, a small British colony on the south coast of China. They were placed in the barracoons after being taken prisoners in the civial war that was being fought across the whole of South China. Their captors handed them over to local indenture brokers who sold them to British immigration agents. In 1860, British Guiana sent an agent to Canton to recruit Chinese families from the rural areas of Fukien, and Kwangtang. Trinidad joined the scheme and shared the cost of the agency in 1864. Recruiters did not tell the Chinese the nature of the work they were going to to do and they made false promises about repatriation. In the mid 1850s the French Caribbean started to import Chinese workers. About 1000 went to Martinique and 500 to Guadeloupe. The Dutch colony of Suriname also imported over 2000 Chinese workers. Indians The first group of immigrant Asians in the Caribbean were thhe 414 Indians who arrived in British Guiana in 1838. This arrangement was called the ‘Gladstone experiment,’ because the imigrants were privately imported by John Gladstone a large landholder in British Guiana, together with a company in Calcutta. The Indians were imported on five-year contracts for six sugar estates. Their treatment was so poor and the death rate so high that the state imposed a ban on future importations. The British government would later appoint a local Commission to investigate the treatment of the Indians and with recommendations the ban was lifted in 1844. In 1845, British Guiana, Trinidad and Jamaica began again the importation of Inidans. Reasons for Emigrating Page 4 of 4 The emigrants came to the Caribbean for various reasons. Some left to escape economic hardship, especially during times of famine. Some left hoping to earn higher wages, others to escape their debts. Many left because they had lost property and status due to the unfavourable British land policies in India. Some left because Western industrialisation had undermined their industries, such as the cloth industry. Famines and their hardships alone did not cause Indians to emigrate to the Caribbean, although the famines made it easier to persuade more people to emigrate. But, in the end, it was the extent of the demand of Caribbean planters for labourers rather than displacement from famines which determined the number of people exported from India. By the late 19 th century the main recruiting areas were the North West Provinces, Bihar, Orisa, Rajpunta and the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Districts of recruitment included Fyzabad, Lucknow, Gonda, Basti, Sultanpore, Allahabadk, Sitapore, Benares and many others. Indians also came from Nepal, Central India and the Punjab. Table 1 Number of Indians imported to the Caribbean, 1838-1917 Territory British Guiana Trinidad Suriname Guadeloupe Jamaica Martinique St. Lucia St. Kitts French Guiana Years 1838-1917 1845-1917 1873-1918 1854-1887 1845-1916 1848-1884 1858-1895 1860-1861 1853-1885 Numbers imported 238,909 143,939 34,024 42,595 38,681 25,509 4,354 337 19,296 Indian immigration versus other schemes in retrospect Why did Indian immigration prove to be the most significant and long-lasting scheme of them all? A number of factors help to explain it. India was under British rule and so there were fewer political obstacles in the wayof emigration, compared to Chinese and African emigration. Indians were employed under longer contracts and remained in the Caribbean for ten years before they could legally claim a return passage to India. They could of course pay their own way and return earlier, but few could afford this. The owners did not have to pay for all the costs of Indian immigration. The colonial taxes contributed a percentage of the cost. Wages paid to the Indians, particularly to the women, were low, as planters could give better paying jobs black people whom most planters preferred for some tasks, such as factory tasks. The terms of contract included clauses limited the movement of the Indians so they were virtually imprisoned on the estates and planters were assured of a resident force of labourers.
