Abstract

Calcutta and Madras may be dubbed the "coolie catchment" centers for the British colonial trade in indentured labor destined for the southern tip of Africa. It was a weathered form of slavery based on voluntary contractual labor relationship-a more civilized version of slavery which was abolished throughout the British Empire in 1833. It took the form of a systematic but brutal coordination of capital accumulation using predominantly the single sex indentured labor system. Commencing in 1860,hordes of male laborers were shipped to the port city of Durban in South Africa to cultivate and process sugar on the coastal belt of the province of KwaZulu-Natal.