Slavery and the Emancipation of Slaves on Penang

Editorial Note: In 1827 the Court of Directors of the East India Company and the British government in India submitted to the House of Commons correspondence regarding slavery in India. This material was subsequently printed in a volume that was nearly 1,000 pages in length.

In 1828 The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany published the first of a series of pieces summarizing this material. The issue that came out in February 1829 (vol. 27, pp. 147–9) included the following information on slavery in Penang.

Paul H Kratoska
Editor, JMBRAS

Amongst the Bengal papers are contained some documents relating to the state of slaves in Pulo Pinang, or Prince of Wales’ Island, of which we shall now give a short summary.

This island was ceded to the East-India Company by the King of Quedah, through the agency of Capt. F. Light, in 1786. An addition of territory, consisting of the tract of sea-coast opposite to Penang, on the Malayan peninsula, extending from Qualla Kurrian to the river side of Qualla Mooda, measuring inland from the sea sixty orlongs (4,800 yards) was obtained from the King in 1800 by a treaty negociated by Sir George Leith. Capt. Light was appointed superintendent or governor of the island, “in consideration of his knowledge of the Malay language and the high esteem in which he stood with the King of Quedah and other Malay chiefs.” The first object of Capt. Light was to obtain settlers on the island: he appears to have carried only three carpenters and eight Chinese labourers from Bengal, and he hired eight Chinese from Quedah. The state of the island at this period is thus described in a letter from Capt. Kyd to the Bengal Government:

Penang as yet can be said to have no inhabitants of its own, or even any but the servants of gentlemen and the followers of the troops that are firmly established. When it was first taken possession of by this government, there were a few Malay families, who subsisted by fishing and extracting of wood-oil and dammar, and who lived near the point where the fort stands, but have removed to another part of the island. One of these people, (a very old man) gives an account of there having been about thirty years ago, a great many inhabitants on the island (not less than three thousand), and that at one place it was well cultivated, which is evinced by the number of burying-places that are yet to be seen on a part of the island, which comprehends at least a space of three square miles, and which, from the clearness of wood, and from many fruit trees that are to be seen, and above all, from the appearance of inclosures and furrows, gives a convincing proof that the whole of that space has been recently in cultivation. These people having given themselves up to plunder and piracy, which disturbed the commerce of Queda, the king fitted out an armament, and expelled them from the island. It has always, however, been the occasional resort for piratical Malays, of whom there are a great many in the Straits of Malacca. The little of the woods that are cleared, and all the works about the point, have been done by the lascars of the detachment, and by Malays, who come from the continent for the sake of high wages, and return again when their labour is no more wanted, or when they are no longer inclined to work: for there is no gain will induce a Malay to constant and unremitting industry; but in clearing the woods they are particularly expert, and whatever class of men it might be eligible to fix on the island as the cultivators and permanent settlers, the temporary services of the Malays will probably always be necessary in cutting down trees and clearing the woods.

In order to provide labourers for the new settlement, the Bengal Government directed that 150 Caffres, “volunteers if possible,” should be sent thither from Bencoolen: and thus was set an example of the introduction of compulsory labourers in Penang...