Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian freedom movement, saw first hand the plight of Asian indentured labourers in South Africa and campaigned on this issue during the first decade of the 20th century. The system of indentured labour was officially abolished by British government in Over the following century, the descendents of those who stayed back became significant parts of the population of a number of countries including like Guyana, Surinam, Trinidad, Jamaica, Malaysia and South Africa, and, to a lesser extent, in the East African countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Many of these Asian people later migrated to the UK in the s and thereafter. Skip to main content. About Glossary References. Tabs Content After the abolition of slavery, newly free men and women refused to work for the low wages on offer on the sugar farms in British colonies in the West Indies.
Discuss Discuss 15 mins. Describe Describe 20 mins. Use key words to enhance your illustration. View the full image Indentured labourers in Surinam. A Tamil coolie setting out tea plants in a plantation in Ceylon, present day Sri Lanka in Indian female "Coolie woolwashers" in 19th century South Africa. Image published in 19th century.
Newly Arrived Coolies in Trinidad, Paying coolies at Maungu station, Taru desert, Kenya. Links Coolies: How Britain reinvented slavery.
The slave trade was officially abolished throughout the British Empire in In reality, the powers were engaged in genuine competition for recruiting manpower. A large number of these workers were ultimately not repatriated to their country of origin as provided for in their contract, and settled in the colony or nearby colonies at the end of their indenture.
This was particularly true for captured African indentured labourers who no longer had ties in their country of origin, and who did not enjoy the protection of a major power. For more than a century, these transfers of indentured labourers had a major impact on the economic development of colonial societies.
These workers from elsewhere brought their beliefs, language, forms of music and dance, and culinary practices. In the face of difficulties connected to recruitment, the immigration of indentured labourers gradually declined on the eve of the First World War, and completely disappeared in the middle of the twentieth century in favour of other more spontaneous migratory movements.
Europe, Europeans and the World. Indentured Labour in European Colonies during the 19th Century. Coolies newly arrived in Trinidad, A System that Took Over From Slavery The gradual abolition of the slave trade and slavery in European colonies was the source of new migrations of labourers throughout the world, notably during the second half of the nineteenth century.
A Slave Trade in Disguise? A Diplomatic Issue Between the Major European Powers Over the course of the nineteenth century, the question of indentured manpower was at the heart of European diplomatic relations, notably French-British and French-Portuguese relations. A Major Economic, Cultural, and Social Impact on European Colonial Societies A large number of these workers were ultimately not repatriated to their country of origin as provided for in their contract, and settled in the colony or nearby colonies at the end of their indenture.
Print PDF. Recommanded articles. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Indentured servitude refers to a contract between two individuals, in which one person worked not for money but to repay an indenture, or loan, within a set time period. Indentured servitude was popular in the United States in the s as individuals, mainly European immigrants, worked in exchange for the price of passage to America.
The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was passed after the Civil War, made indentured servitude illegal in the U. Today, it is banned in almost all countries. Essentially, indentured servitude was a kind of barter system. For example, someone who sought a new life in America, but who could not afford the expensive steamship fare from another country, would contract with a wealthy U. Indentured servitude in the U. Many early American settlers needed cheap labor to help manage their large estates and farmland, and plenty of landowners agreed to fund the passage of European immigrants to Virginia in exchange for their labor.
Approximately , European workers immigrated to the American colonies in the s as indentured servants, and indentured servitude continued throughout much of the s—albeit at a slower pace.
Other parts of the world also engaged in some version of indentured servitude at around the same time that it was happening in the United States. For example, a great many people left Europe for the Caribbean to work as indentured servants on sugar plantations. Under indentured servitude, the contract stipulated that the worker was borrowing money for transportation and would repay the lender by performing a certain kind of labor for a set period.
During its heyday, the indentured servitude system allowed landowners to provide only food and shelter for indentured servants, as opposed to wages. Some landowners offered their servants basic medical care, but typically labor contracts did not provide for this.
Some indentured servants served as cooks, gardeners, housekeepers, field workers, or general laborers; others learned specific trades such as blacksmithing, plastering, and bricklaying, which they could choose to turn into careers later. Most workers who became indentured servants were males, generally in their late teens and early twenties, but thousands of women also entered into these agreements and often worked off their debts as household employees or domestic servants.
Although some indentured servants completed their contracts and received land, livestock, tools, and other necessities to set out on their own, many others did not live to pay off their contracts because they perished from diseases or work-related accidents; some also ran away before completing their terms of service.
In general, indentured servants enjoyed little personal freedom. Some contracts allowed landowners to extend the work period for servants who were accused of behavior that was deemed improper. If a servant ran away or became pregnant, for example, a master was legally entitled to lengthen the worker's term of service. An indenture is a legal and binding agreement, contract, or document between two or more parties. In the case of indentured servants, these contracts contained "indented" marks along the sides of the document.
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