Slavery in Australia

European settlement relied heavily on convicts, sent to Australia as punishment for crimes and forced into labour and often leased to private individuals.

Once the convicts arrived in Australia they were subjected to the system of "assigned service", whereby they were leased out to private citizens and placed entirely under their control, often forced to work in chain gangs.

The unwillingness of wealthy landowners to give up this cheap source of labour was a key factor in why penal transportation persisted for so long, especially in Van Diemen's Land where "assigned service" continued to be widespread until the 1850s.

John Mackay, an owner of indigo plantations in Bengal and a distillery in Sydney, organised the import of 42 coolies from India who arrived on 24 December 1837 on board Peter Proctor.

This was the first sizeable transport of coolie labour into Australia and Mackay leased most of them out as shepherds to work at John Lord's Underbank land-holding just north of Dungog.

[2] The contracts included a 5 or 6 year term of indenture with food, clothing, pay and shelter to be provided, but many absconded, due to reasons of these conditions not being met.

The association declared that should this be permitted, they would be prepared to adopt principles which Secretary of State for War and the Colonies Edward Stanley had put forth "framed with a view to secure the protection" of the labourers.

They wrote that coolies had "exhibited a remarkable standard of honesty, sobriety, and thrift – the latter being strongly exemplified in the sums which many of them have deposited in the Savings Bank, during a few years service."

[5] These coolies went either to labour on Wentworth's pastoral properties such as Burburgate on the Namoi River or worked as servants at his Vaucluse House mansion.

[11] The poor conditions on board the vessel Spartan, chartered by Robert Towns, sparked a rebellion of coolies against the crew of the ship.

[16][17] In Australia's early years, colonists debated whether the conditions under which Aboriginal people worked breached laws against slavery in the British Empire.

Aboriginal settlements were run as depots for cheap labour where a 20% levy was placed on the inmates' already meagre wages, with the remainder held in a departmental trust account.

[19] Through the 20th century, the British Commonwealth League, the North Australian Workers' Union, anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt, artist Albert Namatjira and others raised concerns about the slave-like conditions under which many Aboriginal people worked.

However, at the same time, mechanisation of the stations led to most workers being laid off, and the policy of assimilation meant that the government was placing Aboriginal people on reserves with minimal facilities instead.

[27] Boyd was a Scottish colonist who wanted cheap labourers to work at his expansive pastoral leaseholds in the colony of New South Wales.

[30] Reports of violence, kidnap and murder used during the recruitment of these labourers surfaced in 1848 with a closed-door enquiry choosing not to take any action against Boyd or Kirsopp.

Captain Grueber together with labour recruiter Henry Ross Lewin aboard the Don Juan, brought 73 South Sea Islanders to the port of Brisbane in August 1863.

[38][39][40][41] French officials in New Caledonia complained that Crossley had stolen half the inhabitants of a village in Lifou, and in 1868 a scandal evolved when Captain McEachern of the ship Syren anchored in Brisbane with 24 dead islander recruits and reports that the remaining ninety on board were taken by force and deception.

In some cases blackbirding ships (which made huge profits) would entice entire villages by luring them on board for trade or a religious service, and then setting sail.

But, such government observers were often corrupted by bonuses paid for labourers 'recruited,' or blinded by alcohol, and did little or nothing to prevent sea-captains from tricking islanders on-board or otherwise engaging in kidnapping with violence.

[47] The Kanakas were sometimes offloaded at the ports in Queensland with metal discs imprinted with a numeral hung around their neck making for easy identification for their buyers.

[48] Captain Winship of the Lyttona was accused of kidnapping and importing Kanaka boys aged between 12 and 15 years for the plantations of George Raff at Caboolture.

[42] The South Sea Islanders were put to work not only in cane-fields along the Queensland coast but were also widely used as shepherds upon the large sheep stations in the interior and as pearl divers in the Torres Strait.

[53] In this region, three ships used to procure pearl-shells and beche-de-mer, including the Challenge were owned by James Merriman who held the position of Mayor of Sydney.

[61] During a riot at the Mackay racetrack, several South Sea Islanders were beaten to death by mounted white men wielding stirrup irons.

Captain Lewis Shaw and four crew were charged and convicted of various crimes, receiving jail terms of 7 to 10 years, while two others were sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment.

Despite evidence showing that at least 38 Islanders had been killed by the Hopeful crew, all the prisoners (except for one who died in jail) were released in 1890 in response to a massive public petition signed by 28,000 Queenslanders.

[66] Indigenous Australians,[68] Malaysians, Timorese, and Micronesians were kidnapped and sold as slave-labour for the pearling industry of north western Australia.

[75] After attracting reproach by Aboriginal activists and other sectors of the community,[76] Morrison apologised for any offence caused the following day, and said that he was talking specifically about the colony of New South Wales.

[80] Among others, Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales; James Stirling, founding Governor of Western Australia; Edward Eyre Williams, Supreme Court of Victoria judge; and Reverend Robert Allwood, vicar of Sydney's St James' Church and later University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor (1869-1883), were all given wealth and opportunities thanks to money generated by slavery in the British West Indies.