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In
Place of Slavery
A
Social History of British Indian and Javanese Laborers in
Suriname
by Rosemarijn Hoefte
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this Book now
Rosemarijn Hoefte explores the rise of
indentured servitude on the sugar plantations of Suriname after the end of
slavery in that Dutch Caribbean colony in South America. In this first study
ever of bonded labor in Suriname, she discusses and compares the social,
cultural, and economic consequences of migration and plantation life and offers
insights into the system of indentured immigration in general.
Slavery was abolished in Suriname in 1863. Between 1873 and 1940 more than
34,000 British Indians and nearly 33,000 Javanese (a unique presence in the
Caribbean) entered Suriname and effectively replaced the former slaves. Working
under a contract that included the so-called penal sanction, they were forced to
place their labor power at the unqualified disposal of their employers; the
employers had the right to press criminal charges against the laborers who broke
their contract.
Focusing on Plantation Mariënburg, the largest and longest-surviving sugar mill
in Suriname, Hoefte examines the reactions of the planters, the colonial state,
and the former slaves to this influx of two large ethnic groups with different
cultural backgrounds. She describes the hierarchical organization of the
plantation and discusses such aspects of indenture as wages, housing, medical
care, religion, and education. Both an economic analysis and a pioneering social
history, the book fills a gap in the study of immigration in the Caribbean.
Rosemarijn Hoefte is deputy head of the Department of Caribbean
Studies, KITLV/Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology in Leiden, the
Netherlands. She is the author of Suriname and the coeditor of Connecting
Cultures: The Netherlands in Five Centuries of Transatlantic Exchange.
1998. 352 pp. 6 X 9.
24 tables, 19 b&w photos, 2 appendixes, notes, bibliography, index.
ISBN 0-8130-1625-8
Cloth,
$55.00
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"Tells the story of these desperately poor people - from the moment they were preyed upon by unscrupulous recruiters to their wretched lives on the sugar plantations of Suriname and the doomed efforts of many to protect them and ameliorate their conditions - in cool, careful, and well-documented detail." --
American Historical Review
"A valuable contribution to the
historiography of indentured servitude in the Caribbean, in the
Americas in general, in fact, globally."--Howard
Johnson, University of Delaware
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