Colonial workers

Question 1

When was the indentured labor system in place and what was it used for?

Answer 1

• in place from 1830s to 1920s
• Indian indentured laborers to British owned plantations
• replacing African slave labor
• also helping build railway networks all around the world

Question 2

describe the context of the labor regime of indentured labor

Answer 2

• end of slavery in the British empire in the 1830s; (1808 slave trade abolished; 1833 institution of slavery abolished)
• context of European empires expanding in different parts of the world often with the intention of extending the production of certain commodities

Question 3

What are colonial commodities?

Answer 3

• most of them cannot be produced in Europe (only growing in “the tropics”)
• huge demand in Europe (often because of psychoactive features –> addictive)
• need cheap land and labor –> colonialism and empire building can provide that; political and military power
• examples: cotton, sugar, coffee, tobacco, opium, tea

Question 4

What are Slave Voyages?

Answer 4

• ships taking slaves from Africa to e.g. the Caribbean, Brazil, North America as commodities
• detailed research data base on it; also on enslavers, individuals, companies
• same ships later used to transport indentured laborers

Question 5

Why did the British abolish slavery?

Answer 5

• abolitionist lobby not necessarily motivated by humanitarian aspects
• economic arguments against slavery played important role
• motivated by the Smithian doctrine of free trade (Wealth of Nations, invisible hand etc.)
• free labor in this context = everything that is not slavery
  –> dry discussions about the efficiency and profitability of slavery;

Question 6

Why did it economically make sense from a plantation owner’s point of view to abolish slavery in the rhetoric of free trade?

Answer 6

• monitoring costs (need less money for overseers preventing people from running away); the more forced the labor conditions the higher the monitoring costs
• in some crops slavery doesn’t really work; e.g. wine production (delicate work, need intrinsic motivation to do it well) –> share cropping = giving people a share of the profit

however: plantation owners did not just stop business; powerful, wealthy, well connected politically; saw their well established business model die –> put pressure on the British government;

Question 7

describe the contracts of indentured labor

Answer 7

• Temporary contracts (5 years became common)
• Many were forced to stay much longer
• Laborers recruited from various parts of India
• Family of the laborer immediately receives some money –> incentive for families in trouble to sell family members as indentured laborers
• Received regular wages but costs for transportation and living costs of laborer were deducted
• these prices could be set by the plantation owner –> laborers left with nothing
• Most of them could not read or write –> depended on someone telling them what was in the contract; typical to sign with their thumb print

Question 8

How is the Great rebellion connected to indentured labor?

Answer 8

• many rebels that were imprisoned were offered a choice between working as an indentured laborer or going to prison (= convict labor)
  –> how did the British publicly justify not sending “traitors” to prison
• connected to discourse around Kala pani (idea that you can loose your caste if your cross the ocean); hypothesis that British intentionally blew up this concept arguing crossing the ocean was a harder punishment for them than prison –> convenient way of getting rid of them while exploiting their labor

Question 9

What was the situation of female indentured laborers like?

Answer 9

• 20-30% women among indentured laborers
• examples of push factors for leaving: famine, abusive families, widowhood, prostitution, domestic servitude, violence…
• 2/3 of them left without a family or partner
• loosing caste had different effects on women than on men (e.g. could mean that high caste widows could remarry outside of India); for men more loss of social status

Question 10

Does it make sense to distinguish between slavery and free labor as two distinct categories??

Answer 10

• no; it is a continuum of labor relations
• connected to sexual violence, movement restrictions, indebtedness, vagrancy laws…