Well, with slavery being abolished, the plantation owners could not bring any more slaves from Africa, and instead turned to East India for indentured laborers. They were not considered slaves because they were given land to use as their own in exchange for their services. The East Indians were chosen because of their work ethic and the similarities in crop type and weather conditions between the West Indies and India proper. The concept of indentured labor is a big reason why East Indians in T&T today have such a huge ownership of land and businesses. Hope this helps.
Do you know where I could access information regarding manifests, logs, passenger lists, indenture contracts, etc., for ships that came to Trinidad during this period?
Charles R, I do not know if there are books kept in India, but you may wish to look in the Genealogy Board. I do know Basdeo Panday was able to research back to the actual village in India where his ancestors came from, so I am sure you may be able too as well.
Rather off topic, but... There is a Topic in the Mature Section about East Indians and Suicide. it would be good to have someone answer that there. |
The Best Place to get such information is from the British Library... The have and enourmous amout of information include logs, manifest and even letters written by Englishment who were sent to the Carribbean to report back on the condistions of the slaves and then the Indentured Labours.
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The Library also holds the Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC), Now called APAC (Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections) which contain the collections of the India Office Library and Records, and materials in the languages of Asia and of north and north-east Africa. |
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I do Basdeo Panday was able to research back to the actual village in India where his ancestors came from, so I am sure you may be able too as well. |
Name: Marsha
Comments: I've heard that Indo-Trinidadians came from places which are today Bengal, Nepal, Pakistan, and other states in India which were long ago all considered India. This is similar for Guyanese Indians also.
I am not sure if the manifests may be still available but one would only find information if the status (jati) was high enough to warrant placing the name.
A few scholarly journals writing about East Indians in Diaspora have stated that many! changed their caste association and moreso if they left from ports away from their homestate/area.
Some sources reference the Sepoy Rebellion where the 'losers' and rabble rousers were taken to foreign lands as opposed to serving time in jail or being shot! An easy way to get rid of the problem! The strategy also figured into the "divide and conquer' strategy of the British!