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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. West Indies, Africa, St Helena, Mauritius, 1853 |
| Author | Wood, C Alexander; Rogers, Frederic; Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton |
| Date | 3 May-13 Dec 1853 |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Reference | CO 386/90 |
| 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 the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The correspondence covers the demand for indentured labour in British colonies, legislative developments, the activities of migration agents, the cost of supplying labourers, conditions on board migrant ships, the provision of return passage for indentured migrants, the hire/contracting of migrant ships, 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) | Cape Verde; China; India; Sierra Leone; Singapore; Madeira; Cape of Good Hope; Sierra Leone; Portugal |
| Country (to) | Bahamas; Cuba; Mauritius; Trinidad; Guyana; Bay Islands; Jamaica; Australia; St Lucia |
| Places | London, England |
| Ports | Hong Kong, China; Port Louis, Mauritius; Calcutta, India; Singapore |
| Nationality | Indian; Brazilian; Chinese; Asian; South African; Portuguese; African; European |
| Ships | Samuel Beddington; Matilda; Martin Luther; Clarendon; Zenobia; Eliza; Glentanner; Sandford; Shand; Bucephalus; Ostrich; Edward; Lady Flora Hastings; William Jardine; Harkaway |
| People | Merivale, Herman; Barkly, Sir Henry; Lord Harris (Harris, George) |
| Keywords | land grant, land sale, land price, victualling, luggage, shipping, coolie, indentured labour, town planning, agriculture, sugar, legislation, administration, Bounty Emigration, agent, regulations, surgeon, death, money, finance, East India Company, labour, labourer, remigration, coolie, Liberated Africans |
| Language | English |
| Copyright | Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK |
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