Slavery in the British West Indies.

Kidnapped or bought as a slave,

These West Africans.

Wave after wave,

They are forced into labour by Europeans.

Taken along a horrible and inhumane journey,

To slave till death on sugar plantations,

In a British Colony,

Due to the rise in the demand for sugar by the Europeans.

Their numbers increased as well as their sufferings.

They were treated cruelly and inhumanely,

And forced to work long, hard, strenuous hours,

Until 1834 when they were finally free.

Slavery in the British West Indies.Slavery in the British West Indies was the use of West Africans they kidnaped or bought as slaves. These slaves were taken along a horrible and inhumane journey through the Middle Passage to the British Colonies where they were forced to work long, strenuous hours of hard labour for no pay on the Sugar Plantations and were treated cruelly. The need for these slaves were due mainly to the increase for the demand for sugar by the Europeans. This

continued until slavery was abolished in 1834 but they were not fully free until 1838 due to the four year period of apprenticeship.

A slave being punished.

The economic factors that contributed to the end of Slavery in the British West Indies:

A major factor was that the production of sugar using slave labour was no longer profitable to the planters because slavery itself became expensive with buying the slaves, maintaining them and having to pay arm forces to prevent revolts and runaways. Another key factor was that sugar produced elsewhere including in India and Mauritius was much cheaper than sugar being produced in the British West Indies. Another major reason was that

plantation owners had to compete with beet sugar being produced in Europe during and after the Napoleon Wars.

In search of a cheap labour source, After Slavery came to an end,

The British needed a new labour force, In which they could depend

The East Indian Indentureship Scheme.

After slavery was abolished the British were in search of a cheap labour source of labour to continue the work which many freed slaves refused to do. The British then began to recruit contract labourers from India through a Calcutta agency to aid the struggling sugar industry in the West Indies. The labourers came to the West Indies

under a system known as the Indentureship System also known as the “coolie system” or “cheap labour” where people were encouraged to come to the New World to work for a number of years to continue the work that was done by the enslaved Africans. They were paid wages and at the end of their contracts they were given a free passage back to India but due to circumstances many of them

renewed their contracts. Later on the were given the choice to either take the return passage to India or a portion of land. The Indentureship system ended in

1917.