2. Discuss Both the Negative and Positive Outcomes of Introducing Indentured Labor to the Caribbean Between the Periods 1838 to 1921.
Slavery ended in 1838. One of the biggest negatives of such a system was racism which was found in every Caribbean society. British officials believed that people of Africans descent were inferior and what was worse perhaps these racist attitudes were after internalized by Black and Brown people that is some Africans themselves became convinced that they were inferior to Europeans. With Emancipation in 1838 slaves became free to choose the nature of their future existence. A fundamental development during the post- emancipation period was the exodus of ex slaves from the estates mostly to set themselves up as peasant proprietors. The movement created a labor shortage which threatened the imminent collapse of the sugar industry. To avoid ruin, planters sought to introduce immigrant labour from Europe. , Africa and Asian and to effect certain technical improvements to reduce the cost of production. There were two groups that came to the Caribbean from the 1930’s onwards who did not have much difficulty into the existing society . They were the free African immigrants and Portuguese from Madeira. By far the largest group of new arrivals , however were the Indians. Like the Portuguese they came as indentured workers to work in the sugar plantations. They soon became part of the populations of Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent. Because of their large numbers, bringing with them religions, languages and cultural practices quite different from any found in the Caribbean , they enriched but greatly complicated the society. They were neither black or white , they were not Christians and they had their own ancient culture Two other much smaller groups of immigrants were the Chinese and the Syrian/ Lebanese. Like the Indians they brought their own language and culture. The first group of Indian immigrants arrived in Guyana in May 1838 on board the ships Whitby and Hesperus. They were distributed among six(6)