European, Javanese, and African and Indentured Servitude in the Caribbean

Abstract

The movement of indentured laborers from Europe, Java, and Africa to the Caribbean in the decades before and after the abolition slavery (British Caribbean (1838), Dutch Guiana (1873), and the Danish West Indies (1848) in particular) has been overshadowed by the larger movement of indentured Indians and Chinese to the region. An estimated 500,000 Indians and 250,000 Chinese were brought to the Caribbean and Spanish Peru. By contrast, no less than 90,000 indentured Europeans, Africans, and Javanese were brought to the Caribbean region. Nevertheless, the smaller number of indentured from the latter group pales in comparison to their significance and contribution to the Caribbean plantation society in the 19th and early 20th centuries in terms of providing labor, serving as a buffer between the planters and other ethnic groups, and adding to the mosaic of culture in the Caribbean. However, European, African, and Javanese indentured servitude in the Caribbean has to be contextualized in its own domain before any careful assessment can be made. The European indentured were mainly from Ireland, Germany, Scotland, and Denmark, on the one hand, and Portugal (honorary whites), on the other. The former groups were brought to the Caribbean before African slavery while the Portuguese were brought to the region, mainly to British Guiana, after the abolition of slavery, although the first batch of Portuguese arrived in British Guiana in 1835. Taken together, both groups of indentured proved to be a supplementary source of labor to the plantation system for reasons relating to maladjustment to tropical labor and victims of social ills. The Portuguese, in particular, when their contracts expired drifted toward retail business. Some indentured Africans were brought or recruited from the West African coast but a majority of them were rescued on the high seas on slave ships bound for Cuba, Brazil, and the southern United States by British warships policing the Atlantic Ocean after the slave trade was abolished in 1807. Instead of sending these rescued Africans back to their homeland, they were indentured mainly to the British Caribbean. The Javanese were brought from the Dutch colony of Indonesia, mainly inland Java and the seaports of Batavia, Surabaya, and Semarang to Dutch Guiana after 1873. When their contracts expired, they formed independent communities and engaged in large-scale agriculture and retail business. The Javanese were brought only to Dutch Guiana, now Suriname.