Slaves, Freedmen and Indentured Laborers in Colonial Mauritius

by Richard B. Allen

• ISBN13: 9780521027823
• ISBN10: 0521027829
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this wide-ranging social and economic history of the island of Mauritius, from French colonization in 1721 to the beginnings of modern political life in the colony in the mid-1930s, Richard Allen brings out the importance of domestic capital formation, particularly in the sugar industry. He describes the changing relationship between different elements in the society - slave, free and maroon, and East Indian indentured populations - and shows how these were conditioned by demographic changes, world markets and local institutions. Based on thorough archival research, and thoroughly attuned to contemporary debates, this book will bring the Mauritian case to the attention of scholars engaged in the comparative study of slavery and plantation systems.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Creating a garden of sugar: land, labor and capital, 1721-1936

Part I. Labor and Labor Relations: 3. A state of continual disquietude and hostility: maroonage and slave labor, 1721-1835

4. Indentured labor and the legacy of maroonage: illegal absence

desertion, and vagrancy, 1835-1900

Part II. Land and the Mobilization of Domestic Capital: 5. Becoming an appropriated people: the rise of the free population of color, 1729-1830

6. The general desire to possess land: ex-apprentices and the post-emancipation era, 1839-1851

7. The regenerators of agricultural prosperity: Indian immigrants and their descendants, 1834-1936

8. Conclusion.