Tag: West Indies
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English: source: Immigrant Servants Database a...
Immigrant Servants Database author: signed by Henry Mayer, dated 1738 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Throughout the 1600s, English courts had relied on the colonies to alleviate the overwhelming criminal population. Jails were filled to capacity as crime rates burgeoned. Because the criminal justice system was so overwhelmed, convicts were often offered a choice between death or exile. While many obviously chose emigration over death, the colonies quickly became unhappy with the arrangement. By 1697, many colonial ports simply refused entry to convict ships.

To compound the problem, the justice system was wildly unregulated to the extent that criminals were often expected to arrange and pay for their own transportation. No one kept track of where they went or how they got there; so many convicts simply hopped a boat to Ireland and came back as soon as the coast was clear.

Despite the problems, Parliament still saw the colonies as a viable solution to Britain’s overwhelmed justice system. To that effect, they drafted and passed the Transportation Act of 1718. This act offered a systematic, standardized process by which criminals could be sentenced and shipped to America and the West Indies.

Under this new legislation, merchant companies were paid a fixed sum to ship boatloads of convicts to the New World colonies. Upon arrival in the New World, merchants and ship captains were free to sell off the convicts as indentured servants.

While the Transportation Act standardized the processing and exile of convicts, there was little regulation once ships set sail. Many captains treated the convicts brutally, keeping them chained below decks and subjecting them to horrible abuses. It was fairly common for a cargo of convicts to mutiny and try to kill the captain and crew.

Depending on the severity of their crimes, convicts were sentenced to seven or fourteen years of indentured labour in the colonies. A few richer convicts were able to simply buy their freedom upon arrival; however, most convicts were penniless, unskilled and uneducated. One boatload of felons was surveyed and out of ninety-eight convicts, forty-eight had no marketable skill, and the rest were either too young to have learned a trade or too old to work.

These unskilled felons were forced to serve the duration of their sentence under whoever paid their purchase price. Most were put to work by small plantation owners; however, others were bought by shipbuilders, manufacturers and tradesmen.

Once a convict had served his sentence, he was set free to start a new life for himself. Some of the ex-convicts established themselves throughout the colonies and became productive in society. Many, however, went right back to criminal activities. In the West Indies in particular, a released convict had very little recourse for survival, as by law he could never have land of his own.

The Transportation Act resulted in more than 52,000 convicts being forcibly transported to America and the West Indies. About 80 percent were sent to Maryland and Virginia, while the rest were scattered throughout other New World colonies.  The flow of convict labourers continued unabated for decades, and only stopped with the advent of the American Revolution in 1776.

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Indentured Servants to the West Indies

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English: Oliver Cromwell dissolving the Long P...

As the sugar and tobacco trade developed in the West Indies, English plantation owners were in dire need of manual laborers to work in the fields and harvest the crops. The native Caribbean people had been suppressed, thus, planters were forced to look further afield for the needed workers.

Thus began the (often forced) migration of Irish and English workers to the island plantations of the West Indies. In the brief period between 1652 and 1659, tens of thousands of men, women and children were transported to British colonies in Antigua, Montserrat, Barbados, and other locations throughout the Caribbean Islands.

Some of the migrants were willing participants in the process, and worked as indentured servants on the island plantations. They sold their labor for periods of five to ten years, and in return received ownership of a small plot of land.

These indentured workers signed unique legal contracts. Terms of agreement were written up in duplicate on a single sheet of paper, and then cut with a jagged edge (thus, the term “indenture”). One half was given to the laborer and the other was held by the owner. At the end of the agreed-upon term of service, the two parts of the contract would be brought together and matched to prove authenticity.

The practice of indentured servitude was widely used throughout the plantations in the West Indies, and many chose it of their own free will. However, while there were many “freewillers” who willingly sold their service for a chance at a new beginning, others were sadly exploited. “Redemptionists” were duped into signing a contract of indentured service; yet on arrival, they were sold into slavery. Still others were simply “spirited” to the Caribbean by gangs in Ireland. The kidnapped workers would be loaded onto slave ships in Bristol or Liverpool and shipped off to plantations on the islands.

Unfortunately, whether they served by choice or not, the conditions endured by the Irish workers were appalling. They were regarded as property, and were bought, sold, traded, and mistreated at the whims of their owners. In fact, throughout much of the 17th century, the white slaves were inexpensive compared to their black counterparts; thus, they were considered a practically disposable commodity, and were often subjected to inhumane working conditions and exceptional cruelty.

A chilling account was recorded by the governor of Barbados in 1695. He describes the labor of the slaves, “in the parching sun, without shirt, shoes or stocking,” detailing how they were, “domineered over and used like dogs.”

In many cases, white workers were supervised by black or mulatto overseers, who treated the slaves with particular cruelty. Overseers used their whips liberally to reinforce the “slave” status of the workers. Rape was common – and even encouraged by plantation owners, who saw the unwilling union as opportunity to breed future generations of slave labor free of charge. An estimated 50% of the Irish workers died before finishing their terms of servitude.

Many of the first workers were sent or sold to plantations in Antigua or Montserrat in 1632. By 1660, between 50,000-100,000 Irish workers had been sent to work on the islands. Most of those had not chosen a life of servitude, but had been forcibly sold into slavery.

At the same time, the British Civil War had just come to a close and Oliver Cromwell was in power. Cromwell saw the British sugar trade as a practical solution following his great land clearances in the 1640s. Cromwell deported many thousands of Irish slaves to Barbados, which was a hub of British sugar production at that time.

The Barbados Irish soon became known as “Red legs” – a racial slur resulting from the constantly sunburnt legs of the pale-skinned Irish workers. By the mid-1600s, Irish slave workers made up nearly 70% of the population. Eventually, however, black slave labor increased, and the white population of the islands began to dwindle due to high rates of Irish death and racial intermixing.

Today there remains a tiny population of approximately 400 souls descended from the Irish slaves. The modern Red Legs have vigorously rejected racial mixing, and carry the Celtic names of their ancestors. Unfortunately, this small community lives in deep poverty, scratching out a living from fishing and subsistence farming.

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On the Buses: West Indian Migration after WWII

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The years directly following the Second World War saw a huge transfer of the Caribbean Islands population. It was, in fact, the largest outward movement of people from the British Caribbean Islands, with many thousands ultimately moving to Britain in search of a better life.

The war was a major factor that stimulated migration to England after 1945. Because the British armed forces and the merchant navy were forced to expand considerably, labour shortages became a very real problem on the home front. Women and Irish workers stepped up to fill the gaps, but this was only a partial remedy. Thus, the Empire reached out to its colonies, recruiting thousands of Hondurans and West Indians, among others. Not only were workers recruited for labour on the home front, but 10,000 West Indians were recruited by the Royal Air Force, and thousands more joined the Merchant Navy as well as becoming the workforce keeping the London buses moving.

At the same time, the West Indies had been much neglected and had become the “slum of the Empire” with high levels

Map of the Caribbean Sea and its islands.
Map of the Caribbean Sea and its islands. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

of poverty and unemployment. As the war ended and West Indians returned, the men who had fought hard for the Empire knew that there was little opportunity for employment at home.

The men who had been recruited during the war were eligible for repatriation and gratuities. The government made a valiant effort to send many of them home, and about a fifth of the West Indians were repatriated to Jamaica; however, most quickly returned to Britain. Others simply refused to leave Great Britain at all, instead settling in various parts of England and Scotland.

Following the war, Britain was busy rebuilding and was in dire need of labourers. Initially, however, the British government was reluctant to allow migration from the West Indies, preferring instead to invite workers from the European continent. Many, in fact, felt that West Indians would be lazy or would turn to an easy life on the welfare system. Despite a huge influx of Poles and Italians, the need was simply too great and the UK turned to its colonies.

Finally, the decision was made to allow all British subjects entry. It was widely felt that since all subjects of the Empire had contributed equally to the war effort, there shouldn’t be restrictions on certain groups or nationalities.

In 1948, a Jamaican newspaper featured an advertisement stating that 300 places were available on board the ship Windrush, headed for England. Anyone hoping for better career or education prospects was welcome to travel aboard the ship. This voyage, which landed at Tilbury docks on June 21st, 1948, was the beginning of a major migration from the West Indian Islands to Britain. From 1948 to 1955, over 18,000 immigrants had moved from the Caribbean to Britain. The migration did not slow until 1962, by which time over 98,000 West Indians had made Great Britain their new home.

While many of the migrants were simply grateful for the opportunities available to them, most did face substantial challenges. Many were severely limited in their skills, and thus were forced to take low-paying jobs. The housing many migrants inhabited was of the poorest quality, yet they remained and formed a tightly-knit ethnic group with shared cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions. Social prejudice and discrimination was a challenge as well, as many British workers felt that migrants were taking over the job market and causing unemployment.

Fortunately, however, the West Indian migrants soon settled and became valued contributors to the rebuilding efforts. In many ways, they became a replacement population, inhabiting areas that were previously sparsely populated. Ultimately, the huge influx breathed new life and diversity into the British culture – ethnic diversity that is now widely celebrated. It marked a massive change in British society, and was the start of more wide-spread immigration to the UK.

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