Fiji Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Blackbirding and slavery in Fiji === {{Main|Blackbirding#In Fiji}} [[File:Melanesian Cultural Area.png|thumb|Map of [[Melanesia]]]] The [[blackbirding]] era began in Fiji in 1865 when the first [[New Hebrides|New Hebridean]] and [[Solomon Islands]] labourers were transported there to work on cotton plantations. The [[American Civil War]] had cut off the supply of cotton to the international market when the Union [[Union blockade|blockaded]] Confederate ports. Cotton cultivation was potentially an extremely profitable business. Thousands of European planters flocked to Fiji to establish plantations but found the natives unwilling to adapt to their plans. They sought labour from the Melanesian islands. On 5 July 1865 [[Ben Pease]] received the first licence to provide 40 labourers from the New Hebrides to Fiji.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.janesoceania.com/oceania_blackbirding1/index.htm |title=The Story of Blackbirding in the South Seas β Part 2 |author=Jane Resture |publisher=Janesoceania.com |access-date=9 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307005454/http://www.janesoceania.com/oceania_blackbirding1/index.htm |archive-date=7 March 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> The British and Queensland governments tried to regulate this recruiting and transport of labour. Melanesian labourers were to be recruited for a term of three years, paid three pounds per year, issued basic clothing, and given access to the company store for supplies. Most Melanesians were recruited by deceit, usually being enticed aboard ships with gifts, and then locked up. In 1875, the chief medical officer in Fiji, Sir [[William MacGregor]], listed a mortality rate of 540 out of every 1,000 labourers. After the expiry of the three-year contract, the government required captains to transport the labourers back to their villages, but most ship captains dropped them off at the first island they sighted off the Fiji waters. The British sent warships to enforce the law ([[Pacific Islanders Protection Act 1872]] ([[35 & 36 Vict.]] c. 19)), but only a small proportion of the culprits were prosecuted. [[File:Seizure of blackbirder Daphne.jpg|thumb|Seizure of the blackbirder ''Daphne'']] A notorious incident of the blackbirding trade was the 1871 voyage of the brig ''Carl'', organised by Dr. James Patrick Murray<ref name="G. Elmslie, 1979">{{cite journal|author=Elmslie, R. G. |title=The colonial career of James Patrick Murray|journal=The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery|volume=49|issue=1|pages=154β62|pmid=380544|year=1979|doi=10.1111/j.1445-2197.1979.tb06464.x}}</ref> to recruit labourers to work in the plantations of Fiji. Murray had his men reverse their collars and carry black books, to appear as church missionaries. When islanders were enticed to a religious service, Murray and his men would produce guns and force the islanders onto boats. During the voyage Murray shot about 60 islanders. He was never brought to trial for his actions, as he was given immunity in return for giving evidence against his crew members.<ref name="ReferenceA">James A. Michener and A. Grove Day (1957) "Bully Hayes, South Sea Buccaneer", in ''Rascals in Paradise'', London: Secker & Warburg.</ref><ref name="G. Elmslie, 1979"/> The captain of the ''Carl'', Joseph Armstrong, was later sentenced to death.<ref name="G. Elmslie, 1979"/><ref>''Sydney Morning Herald'', 20β23 Nov 1872, 1 March 1873</ref> In addition to the blackbirded labour from other Pacific islands, thousands of people indigenous to the Fijian archipelago were sold into slavery on the plantations. As the white settler backed Cakobau government, and later the British colonial government, subjugated areas in Fiji under its power, the resultant prisoners of war were regularly sold at auction to the planters. This provided a source of revenue for the government and also dispersed the rebels to different, often isolated islands where the plantations were located. The land that was occupied by these people before they became slaves was then also sold for additional revenue. An example of this is the Lovoni people of Ovalau, who after being defeated in a war with the Cakobau government in 1871, were rounded up and sold to the settlers at Β£6 per head. Two thousand Lovoni men, women and children were sold, and their period of slavery lasted five years.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60865675 |title=A FIJIAN PLANTER'S CONFESSION. |work=[[Empire (newspaper)|Empire]] |issue=6379 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=16 September 1872 |access-date=13 April 2018 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Likewise, after the Kai Colo wars in 1873, thousands of people from the hill tribes of Viti Levu were sent to Levuka and sold into slavery.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198499905 |title=GENERAL NEWS. |work=[[The Leader (Melbourne)|Leader]] |volume=XXVII |issue=940 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=3 January 1874 |access-date=13 April 2018 |page=24 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Warnings from the Royal Navy stationed in the area that buying these people was illegal were largely given without enforcement, and the British consul in Fiji, Edward Bernard Marsh, regularly turned a blind eye to this type of labour trade.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60874042 |title=NINE MONTHS IN FIJI AND OTHER ISLANDS. |work=[[Empire (newspaper)|Empire]] |issue=6014 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=13 July 1871 |access-date=13 April 2018 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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