Madeirans: The First Indentured Labourers in Suriname (1863-1864)
Abstract
Madeiran Portuguese were the first indentured labourers to arrive in Suriname, a former colony of the Netherlands that gained its independence in 1975. It is located in Latin America, North of Brazil, West of French Guiana, East of Guyana and has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean in the North. The first enslaved Africans were transported to Suriname to work on the plantations around the year 1650. Slavery was abolished in 1863, more than 200 hundred years later, due to a reduction in sugar production and a decrease in the slave population caused by the extremely high mortality rate.
Indentured labourers were transported to Suriname to work on the plantations before the abolition of slavery. The first indentured labourers came from Madeira. Madeirans who were not indentured labourers also travelled to Suriname. This concerns a total of 500 Portuguese Madeirans (indentured labourers and free Portuguese). The first group of indentured labourers arrived in 1853. The last groups arrived in Suriname between 21 December 1863 and 11 November 1864. A total of 218 Portuguese indentured labourers.
Keywords
Madeira; Indentured Labourers; Colonial Period; Integration; Suriname.
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