Slavery and indentureship had shared horrors

Sep 03, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Some letter writers feel indentureship and slavery should not be compared. Instead of uniting to confront a common enemy, they are fighting each other over who suffered more and longer. Comparative studies are a standard method for understanding different socio-political and economic systems or different periods of history. Comparing and contrasting two labor system like slavery and indentureship help us to better understand and relate to both. There are those who pen that that the two systems have nothing in common. They are very wrong. There are directed to studies:

doi:10.1093/ahr/119.5.1439 and the numerous articles of Prof Lomarsh Roopnarine as well as Prof Maurits Hassankhan and Ravi Dev (which can be googled), among many other sources.

It is penned in multiple sources that indentureshp was a disguised system of slavery with one or more major differences from chattel slavery in a number of areas.

Recruitment had several similarities.  “Often Indians were lied to, or even kidnapped, by unscrupulous recruiters and transported to the Caribbean in unpleasant and overcrowded vessels, and mortality rates on board the ships frequently were high, with cholera and typhoid the main causes of death.  Indentured were kidnapped similar to slaves. Slaves and indentured suffered from cholera, dysentery, sea sickness, etc. and on the colony they contracted various illnesses similar to slaves”. (https://phdessay.com/slavery-vs-indentureship-in-the-caribbean/)

The death rates aboard the ship were similar though slightly higher for Africans in the initial journeys. A major difference was the Africans were chained on board the ships and several died. Indians could move around on deck for fresh air. But several jumped in the ocean – committed suicide becoming meals for sharks. “Once in the Caribbean, indentured labourers commonly were given the former slave huts in which to live, and initially performed identical work to the slaves, labouring under the rule of the same cruel and often sadistic overseers and plantation owners” (Ibid).  There were many adverse reports on the treatment of indentured laborers that led to its intermittent suspension and eventual abolition.

It is a fact that Africans were treated as cargo and sold to plantations. Indians were also parceled out, herded and sent to different plantations; at times kins were separated including husband and wife. Slaves and indentured both put in some twelve hours labor daily. Also, Indians lived in the same lojies (huts not even fit for animals) from which the slaves were evicted and would have been in a worse condition during indentureship than during slavery as they were not upgraded or rehabilitated at the end of slavery for the indentured.

In theory, indentured laborers had a contract, but in reality, it was hardly ever enforced. There was no lawful neutral state authority to enforce it. As one scholar penned, Indian life in the plantation was not much different from the slaves. The indentured were not owned legally by the plantation owners as in slavery. But for all practical purposes, the indentured and their children were owned by the plantations. They could not venture out of the plantations, not ever for worship or visit brethren. Even when indentureship was completed, they could not leave, and there was no other source of employment but the estate. They had to live on the estate because permission was denied to move elsewhere. Freed slaves could leave the plantations. Lomarsh and Hassankhan showed that those who finished their indentured bondage were not allowed to leave the plantations. They were moved from the plantation owned lojies to heavily forested land within the plantation. The freed Indians fell the trees and built lojies for themselves. They had no choice about labor; they must do what massa (his substitutes) ordered including demands for sex (rape) of females during and right after indentureship.

On labor, it was a crime to be absent from work or not completing tasks; it could lead to whipping and heavy fines. One scholar penned: “If any coolie fails to work for a single day, he is jailed for two to four days and kept under chains and tortured very much. The idea of a rest day was inconceivable; movements were curtailed, and the laborers were caged within the walls of the plantation”. Sickness or injury was not an excuse for not reporting to work. No work resulted in no pay or negative pay since there were fines. The slaves were not fined for sickness or not reporting for work; they may be whipped depending on the mercy of the massa. The Indians were not subjected to mercies. No work, no pay, and lashes and fines.

As penned in https://phdessay.com/slavery-vs-indentureship-in-the-caribbean/, “if what is most notable about slavery is it allows the massa to extract labor without paying for it. That is precisely what was achieved in the system of Indian indentureship. There is a salutary lesson for victims of European domination. When Europeans saw fit to bestow freedom upon people, they could only do so by chaining others”.Some penned that the Africans were not allowed to keep their names and practice their culture. They forget that Hindus were not allowed to cremate their dead or conducted puja on foreshores until after the end of indentureship. The first cremation was in 1955, some 117 years after they first arrived on the colony and 34 years after the end of indentureship.

Notwithstanding the above, slavery and indentureship are two different systems and no attempt should be made to equate both. However, we must relate to and understand each other’s experiences. Barbadian Africanist scholar George Lamming wrote that “the Indian hands fed us in the Caribbean”, adding “They contribute as much as the hands of African slaves to the Caribbean experiment of giving shape to a unique express of human civilization”.  As Lamming put it: “there can be no creative discovery of this civilization without the central and informing influence of the Indian presence in the Caribbean”.I agree with Africans who pen that Indian can speak for enslaved Africans and their descendants. Should Africans speak for Indians or Portuguese or Chinese indentureds or the oppressed indigenous people?

I should note that in addition to slaves, African contracted indentured laborers came to Guyana. The history record would show that when slavery ended in 1834 (1838), there were under 80K freed slaves. Some 40K Africans were subsequently imported into Guyana as indentured laborers as Ravi Dev reminded readers (SN Aug 27).

Lewis and other Africans do not wish for the Indians, Amerindians and other groups to be included in African claim for reparations. That should be honored. The injustices of indentureship system should be recognized and the ancestors honored.

Yours truly,

Dr. Vishnu Bisram

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• Dr. Vishnu Bisram, Indentureship, Lomarsh Roopnarine, slavery, socio-politica

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