Abstract
This essay presents south-eastern, deltaic Bengal as a slave-raiding zone in terms of certain specific trends visible in the seventeenth century Bay world. These were: rising international sea-borne trade, increased South Asian warfare, the burgeoning labour market in the Bay of Bengal, renewed migration, and increased mobility in the Bay of Bengal world. Not just in terms of seventeenth century trends, slavery here is also presented in the context of longer-term environmental pressures in the Bengal delta. There has been an attempt, in this essay, to juxtapose the slavery in the Bengal delta against the older forms of slavery in north-east India, northern Burma, south-west China and in Arakan. Both types of slavery are seen as responses to pressures originating from the Bay. A study of slavery, from a maritime optic, helps us identify the pressures that Southeast Bengal underwent prior to colonial rule, at a time when its overland and overseas trades declined, but agriculture grew exponentially. Finally, this essay pleads for understanding the south-eastern delta's history in terms of a global history.
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