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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. West Indies, Africa, St Helena, Mauritius, 1850-1851
Author Wood, C Alexander; Rogers, Frederic; Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton
Date 22 Jun 1850 - 19 May 1851
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/87
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Copies of out-letters regarding indentured labour including 'liberated Africans', addressed to Herman Merivale, some for the attention of Lord Grey, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The letters cover conditions on board migrant ships, the activities of migration agents, the death of migrants en route to their destination, legislative developments, various payments, and the government's relationship with its contractor Messrs. Hyde, Hodge and Co., who organised the passages of freed Africans. An index is included at the end of the volume.
Series Description This series contains original correspondence, entry books and registers of the Agent General for Emigration, the South Australian Commissioners and the Land and Emigration Commission. Amongst the miscellaneous contents are registers of births and deaths of emigrants at sea 1854-1869, lists of ships chartered 1847-1875, registers of surgeons appointed 1854-1894, and volumes of The Colonial Gazette 1838-1842.
Biographical Note / History A Colonial Land and Emigration Commission was created in 1840 to undertake the duties of two earlier and overlapping authorities which were both under the supervision of the Secretary of State. These were the Colonisation Commissioners for South Australia, established under an Act of 1834, and the Agent General for Emigration, appointed in 1837. The new commission dealt with grants of land, the outward movement of settlers, the administration of the Passengers' Acts of 1855 and 1863 and, from 1846 to 1859, the scrutiny of colonial legislation. In 1855 it became the Emigration Commission. In 1873 the administration of the Passengers' Acts was transferred to the Board of Trade. The commission's powers were gradually given up to the larger colonies as they obtained self-government, and after 1873 its only duties were the control of the importation of Indian indentured labour into sugar-producing colonies and it was abolished in 1878.
Theme(s) Politics, Legislation and Governance; Journey Conditions; Remigration
Country (from) Madeira; China; Portugal; Natal; South Africa; Canary Islands; Sierra Leone; St Helena; Singapore; Azores; Cuba; United States of America; Cape Verde; Brazil; India
Country (to) Bermuda; Trinidad; Tobago; Guyana; Windward Islands; Jamaica; Mauritius; St Lucia; St Vincent; Grenada
Places London, England
Ports Guangzhou, China; Singapore; Madras, Calcutta, India
Nationality Indian; Brazilian; Chinese; Asian; South African; Portuguese; African
Ships Glentanner; Atlantic; Nile; Tamerlane; Fame; Clarendon; Brandon
People Merivale, Herman; Barkly, Sir Henry; Lord Harris (Harris, George)
Keywords apprenticeship, indentured labour, coolie, slavery, death, bounty emigration, surgeon, agriculture, sugar, yellow fever, legislation, administration, finance, money, dysentery, claims, remigration, agriculture, agent, labour, labourer, coolie, Liberated Africans
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK