Raffles and the Slave Trade at Batavia in 1812

Bibliographic Data

ID8958782
AuthorsH R C Wright (University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author)
Year1960
Volume3
Issue2
Pages184-191
Publication date1960-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x00022895
OpenAlexW2096184628
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited1

British opinion in the East became sensitive to propaganda against slavery and the slave trade surprisingly early. Thus in 1772 the Committee of Circuit in Bengal, when recommending the enslavement of the families of hereditary dacoits, thought it necessary to explain that slavery in India involved only a mild domestic subordination, since ‘the ideas of slavery borrowed from our American colonies will make every modification of it appear to our countrymen in England a horrible evil’. In 1789 Cornwallis prohibited the collection of slaves for export, and was contemplating a gradual abolition of slavery in Bengal.2 David Scott, a hard-headed East-India merchant and a Director of the East India Company, wrote in a private letter in 1796 that the salt workers in Bengal must be freed from compulsory labour, ‘for slaves cannot work so cheap as free men, besides we ought to give all our subjects liberty‘. In 1804 Wellesley ordered proposals to be made for the prohibition of slavery on Penang, since there could be no great difficulty about it on so recent a settlement

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bay · BENGAL · Economics · Genealogy · Political science · Settlement (finance · Subordination (linguistics · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society

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