At Emancipation Park in Kingston, Jamaica. Kent MacElwee/flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In the past two decades, different forms of unfree labour have increasingly been compared to chattel slavery, and the movement of people into such labour – termed ‘human trafficking’ – to the transatlantic slave trade. But, as critical commentators have pointed out, such comparisons are unwarranted, and a more careful reading of history can offer us a more accurate perspective on the contemporary practices termed ‘modern slavery’ and ‘human trafficking’.
Indentureship in the Caribbean
The Caribbean region can provide us with a glimpse into such historical questions, where the system of indentureship pre-dated, co-existed with, and survived slavery. It was organised with a considerable level of fraud and violence by colonial governments to give farm and plantation owners access to and control over a large pool of low-cost wage labourers for the agricultural industry.
