May is East Indian Indentureship month:
Indentureship – Guyana Sugar Burning
On May 5th, 1838, after the abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean, the first group of East Indians set foot in the Americas arriving on the Whitby, a British ship, where 244 Indians set foot in Guyana.
The journey to the New World begun on January 13th 1838, from the Calcutta port with 249 Indians, and lasted 5 long months, traveling half way around the world, from the Indian Ocean, around Africa and then up into the Atlantic Ocean and then to the waters of Guyana. The long voyage across the oceans brought seasick, hunger and diseases to the Indians on board the ship, where 5 people had died and only 5 females arrived alive. Continue reading
