History of Pulicat - Slave Trade

Slave Trade

For most of the 16th and 17th centuries Europeans on the Coromandal coast were extensively involved in the trading, brokering and shipment of slaves from India to Ceylon and the West Indies. The Dutch were "the nexus of an enormous slave trade" and between 1621 and 1665 alone, used 131 ships to transport 38,441 Indian slaves obtained mostly from Pulicat brokers. In Pulicat, the price of a slave ranged from 27 to 40 guilders in "expensive years" to as little as 4 guilders in "cheap years".

Normally 150 – 400 slaves were shipped each year from central Coromandel ports, including Pulicat, Madras, Nagapatnam and Devanampatnam. This trade increased greatly during several famine periods. Between 1659 and 1661, eight to ten thousand slaves were shipped from central Coromandel ports including Pulicat. Domestic slavery was officially recognized by the English at Madras and run mainly by the Dutch at Pulicat.

Slave labour was a defining element of the high production levels and luxury standards of Dutch colonial settlements throughout the Indian Ocean. Slaves empowered the elite groups, and formed 25% – 66% of the total population of the major settlements, including Pulicat.

Read more about this topic:  History Of Pulicat

Famous quotes containing the words slave and/or trade:

    Hear my soul speak:
    The very instant that I saw you, did
    My heart fly to your service, there resides
    To make me slave to it.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky.
    William Faulkner (1897–1962)