This document is a standard charter party (shipping contract) for
transporting Indian indentured labourers to the West Indies. It conforms
to the British government's new policy of trying to ensure that indentured
labourers were given tolerable conditions on the voyage to the Caribbean.
The document also reveals a great difference between the earlier transportation
of enslaved Africans, and that intended for Indian workers. Africans
had been bound by chains to the lower decks of slave ships and fed
meagre rations, whereas the Indian workers were to be supplied with
all their dietary needs, including rice, dhal and chillies, as well
as the medicines they might need on their long voyage. This does not,
of course, mean that these rations were supplied in all cases, although
workers were of no use to the plantation owners if they arrived in
poor health.
CO 318/165, ff. 152, 154 (1844)
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