2020 has been dedicated to the commemoration of 100 years since the termination of the system of indentureship in the Caribbean. It is very well known, for example, that the Whitby, the first ship bringing Indian immigrants to British Guiana set sail from Port Calcutta on January 13, 1838 and docked in Berbice on May 5, of the same year. The second vessel was the Hesperus, which made the identical journey and arrived on the same day, bringing the first cohort of workers under the Gladstone experiment.
Since then 238,909 Indians “were transported in 245 ships which made 534 voyages across the Kaala Paani to British Guiana between 1838 and 1917,” according to Evan Persaud in “Coolie Ships”, published in 2009. The corresponding figures for the rest of the Caribbean were Trinidad – 143,939, Jamaica – 38,412, Surinam – 34,304, with much smaller numbers for the other West Indian islands, according to Verene Shepherd.
