How Blackbirders Forced Tens of Thousands of Pacific Islanders Into Slavery After the Civil War
News Source : Smithsonian.com
News Summary
- “Blackbirders’” slave traders lured, coerced or outright kidnapped tens of thousands of people for forced labor in Australia and Fiji
- The decline of the American South’s cotton and sugar industries paved the way for plantations in British-controlled Fiji and Australia
- Young men and boys were especially prized; attractive women fetched the highest prices
Estimatesof the number of Pacific Islanders captured by blackbirders and forced to work on cotton and sugar plantations in Fiji and Australiarangefrom 61,610 to more than 100,000. Public domain [+14515 chars]