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'Slave-dealing and Slave-holding by Kutchees in Zanzibar' [114r] (16/63)
The record is made up of 1 file (28 folios). It was created in 1870. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
13
Extract Letter from Colonel Rigby to the Secretary of State for India,
dated 1st May (No. 3) 1860.
Para. 23. During the past year I have redeemed 3,562 slaves from slavery to
British subjects residing at Zanzibar, and have furnished each individual with a
certificate of freedom, signed and sealed by myself; and I trust that this will
prevent any British subjects from purchasing slaves, or aiding this detestable
traffic in the Zanzibar dominions in future.
Extract Bombay Political Consultation for September 1861.
No. 47 of 1861.
•No. 6545.
Political Department.
Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel C. P. Rigby , Her Majesty's Consul and British
Agent at Zanzibar, to A. K. Forbes , Esq., Acting Secretary to the Bombay
Government.
British Consulate, Zanzibar,
Sir, July 12th, 1861.
I have the honour to report, for the information of His Excellency the
Honourable the Governor in Council, that, in consequence of a great number of
plantations on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba being mortgaged, together with
the slaves attached to such plantations, by the Arab proprietors to British sub
jects, I have issued a notice addressed to all British subjects residing in the
Zanzibar dominions, directing that, whenever a mortgaged plantation is taken
possession of by the mortgagee, he must immediately bring all the slaves on such
plantation to the British Consulate, to be emancipated and registered.
2. In a notice which I issued to the British subjects at Zanzibar, dated 10th
February 1860, warning them of the penalties of trafficking in slaves, they are
likewise forbidden to receive slaves in pawn or pledge, and since that date, there
fore, they have discontinued including the slaves in mortgages of plantations.
3. Probably three-fourths of the immoveable property on the islands of
Zanzibar and Pemba are either already in the possession of British subjects or
mortgaged to them. The Arabs are all wasting their substance in drunkenness
and debauchery, the degraded victims of the system of slavery, by which they
regard any kind of honest industry as beneath an Arab, and only befitting negro
slaves.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) C. P. Rigby , Lieutenant-Colonel,
Her Majesty's Consul and British Agent,
Zanzibar.
Extract Enclosure to Bombay Political Letter, dated 12th April (No. 27) 1862.
Extract Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Felly , Acting Consul and Agent at
Zanzibar, to the Bombay Government, dated 1st February (No. 113) 1862.
The value of landed property came to be estimated by the amount of slave,
labour on the estate; the value of house property depended of course upon the
demand, and this upon the thriving condition or otherwise of commerce. When
we emancipated the slaves of our British Indian subjects, nearly all the estates
held by them were held in mortgage for value advanced to Arab proprietors at a
time when these estates were valuable on account of their slaves. But when these
slaves were emancipated, the value of the estates fell proportionately; heavy loss
was sustained by our subjects; credit was shaken ; no person but apprehended
that the past emancipation was but the prelude of a general abolition throughout
the State, and hence no man would advance on security of any landed estate. The
circulation of money was checked in the source; commerce in general became
affected; the value of all property, house or landed, fell, and seemed likely, under
11532. D
About this item
- Content
This file contains a selection of correspondence, extracts and reports regarding the involvement of British subjects from the Princely State of Kutch [Cutch] in the slave trade in Zanzibar and attempts by the British Government to end this involvement.
Much of the correspondence is from Britain's Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in Zanzibar, Henry Adrian Churchill and Britain's Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in Kutch, Major Alexander Young Shortt. This includes translated copies of correspondence between Churchill and the Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyd [Sayyid] Majid bin Said.
On folio 128, the file contains a proclamation issued by the ruler of Kutch, the Maharaja Dhiraj Mirza Maha Rao Shree Praguruljee, that warns his subjects in Kutch of the penalties of being engaged in the slave trade in general and specifically in Zanzibar.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (28 folios)
- Arrangement
The file is arranged in rough chronological order.
A contents page is included on folio 108.
- Physical characteristics
Condition: the file is contained within a bound volume that contains a number of other files.
Foliation: The foliation for this description commences at f 107, and terminates at f 134, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is also present in parallel between ff 5-134; these numbers are written in pencil, but are not circled, and can be found in the same position as the main sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/18/B90
- Title
- 'Slave-dealing and Slave-holding by Kutchees in Zanzibar'
- Pages
- front, 107r:108v, 111r:135v, i-r:i-v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence