Industrial Globalization & the Indian Indentured Labour of the 19th Century The Industrial Revolution unleashed contradictory forces in the 19th century. On one hand, it necessitated intercontinental mass labour transit. On the other, and in combination with the French Revolution, it sounded the death knell for slave labour, the very basis of plantation prosperity. Indentured labour emerged to replace slaves. The lure of...

Jamali, sugarcane's Guard, 1861 Discovering the "cafre" guards The man Jamali pictured here is a "cafre". This word comes from the Arabic "kafir", meaning infidel, i.e. non-Muslim. Note his imposing build, his sharp spear to defend the fields or the huts, and the watchful look of the guard who watches for possible dangers from a higher point. The Lamb, Malagasy loincloth ? The cloth that envelops it is a loincloth,...

Analysis of the Victorine's illustration Watercolour by Hippolyte Charles Napoléon Mortier, the Duke of Trevise dating from 1865, and representing "the old lady", who was called Victorine Context Victorine was very old in 1866, 13 years after the French abolition of slavery. Victorine may have arrived on the island as a child, as a slave. Young domestic slaves were in the permanent service of their masters, and apprenticed to older slaves. When...