Fragments of Empire: Capital, Slavery, and Indian Indentured Labor Migration in the British Caribbean (Critical Histories)

historians, By Relying On Biased Sources, Have Perpetuated The Acceptance Of A Privileged Perspective On Imperial British History. When Great Britain abolished slavery in 1833, sugar planters in the Caribbean found themselves facing the prospect of paying working wages to their former slaves. Cheaper labor existed elsewhere in the empire, however, and plantation owners, along with the home and colonial governments, quickly began importing the first of what would eventually be hundreds of thousands of indentured laborers from India. In Fragments of Empire, Madhavi Kale draws extensively on the archival materials from this period, reading planters' correspondence, legal documents, newspaper reports, imperial papers, and speeches. She argues that imperial administrators sanctioned and authorized distinctly biased accounts of post-emancipation labor conditions and participated in devaluing and excluding alternative perspectives. As she does this she highlights the ways in which historians, by relying on these biased sources, have perpetuated the acceptance of a privileged perspective on imperial British history. When Great Britain abolished slavery in 1833, sugar planters in the Caribbean found themselves facing the prospect of paying working wages to their former slaves. Cheaper labor existed elsewhere in the empire, however, and plantation owners, along with the home and colonial governments, quickly began importing the first of what would eventually be hundreds of thousands of indentured laborers from India. Madhavi Kale draws extensively on the archival materials from the period and argues that imperial administrators sanctioned and authorized distinctly biased accounts of postemancipation labor conditions and participated in devaluing and excluding alternative accounts of slavery. As she does this she highlights the ways in which historians, by relying on these biased sources, have perpetuated the acceptance of a privileged perspective on imperial British history. When Great Britain abolished slavery in 1833, sugar planters in the Caribbean found themselves facing the prospect of paying working wages to their former slaves. Cheaper labor existed elsewhere in the empire, however, and plantation owners. along with the home and colonial governments, quickly began importing the first of what would eventually be hundreds of thousands of indentured laborers from India. Through it all, the effects of slavery on the existing Afro-Creole population were ignored even as a labor hierarchy was being created and the attribution of racial, gendered, and cultural difference to Afro-Caribbeans and Indians was beginning. THIS CHAPTER FOCUSES on the initial scheme for importing Indian laborers for plantations in British Guiana, its reception and course, and introduces some of the debates and characters that have animated accounts, memories and histories of the migration.