Between the nineteenth and twentieth century, the growth of the plantation industry and the need for additional labor caused a mass importation of foreigners as indentured servers. Although the conditions of service seem fair and reasonable according to the contract, the actual conditions may not have been as good. Most of the additional labor, which caused importation of indentured servers, was primarily male. Over the 16-year period from 1835-1851, the number of Asian Indian immigrants to Mauritius as published by the British Government in 1949 clearly shows a pattern of male dominance.
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The number of former male slaves outnumbered the females each year. [D6] Although the number of former slaves decreased over time, there were always more male than female slaves. Comparatively, the number of Asian Indian immigrants into Mauritius increased over time, but there still more males than female immigrants. Although the indentured servants were led by a desire to better their conditions, they were treated more like slaves in their new country. “…They are not slaves, seized by violence, brought over in fetters, and working under the lash.
They have been raised, not without effort, like recruits for the military service” [D1]. Herman Merivale, a British Undersecretary of the Colonies, profits from the indentured servitude and thus feels that they are treated fairly. “I am overworked and the wages paid me is not sufficient. ” [D8]. Ramana, an indentured servant to T. T. Poynton states that the conditions are deplorable. He doesn’t get enough time to eat his meals, and when he misses a day he doesn’t get paid and has to make up the work missed.
The mass importation of indentured servants was recruited labor from Western Europe for North America. The principal overseas indentured migrations, 1834-1919 shows migration patterns going from Africa, Japan and China towards the islands between North and South America. [D3] According to David Northrup, author of Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism, 1834-1922; he writes that most of the Indian migrations traveled to Mauritius, whereas in China they migrated mostly to Cuba and the Japanese migration primarily to Hawaii. [D4] Statistics from various official overnment records from show the share of total populations in selected territories deriving from indentured migrations from 1920-1921. In Mauritius, 71% of the total population is Asian Indian indentured servants. [D9]. The indentured servants did not feel that their new conditions offered the better life that they desired. The conditions that indentured servitude offered were inhumane. A picture in Document 5 shows all of the newly arrived Asian Indian laborers awaiting assignment to work on sugar plantations in Suriname (Dutch Guiana) in 1855.
As you can see the number of workers is quite large. Document 8 clearly demonstrates the complaints of one servant. Ramana complains that “I am not allowed proper time to eat my meals during the day. I have to commence work at about 5:30 in the morning and finish off about 8:30 pm daily, I work on Sundays up to 2 o’clock. ” [D8] He clearly feels that he is overworked for the little pay that he gets. In contrast, the employer’s feel that their contract of service is fair and reasonable and that the conditions provided to the indentured servants are good. Every day, except Sunday and authorized holiday” [D7] is the recommended number of days on which they were required to work. The employer also offered “a suitable dwelling shall be assigned to the emigrant and family, if any, free of rent, and shall be kept in good repair by the employer; medicines, comforts, medical attendance, hospital accommodations and appropriate diet when sick shall be provided free of cost. ” [D7] This document clearly shows that the feels that they are giving indentured servant what they to live comfortably.
An additional document from an indentured servant that worked for the 10 years and left to go home for free with his family would be ideal as a point of view. It would show how he felt working in the new country and his opinion of the conditions provided and what was given to him when the contract ended. The next document that would be beneficial to have is a document written from a female point of view. All the written documents are from a male so we only see one side of how people felt about the conditions of servitude.
The overall cause for indentured servitude was from the growing need of labor to meet the demands of sugar cultivation. Although employers benefited from this in the form of profits from the work, the servants suffered as their conditions of life were not improved. Indentured servitude was considered an alternative to slavery; however, it had a negative global impact as it left fewer people in the countries that they migrated from, and additional people with poorer conditions in the countries that they migrated to.
