All about the ancient tribes
Indian indentured immigration began with Mauritius in 1834, and by 1845 the first ship arrived in Trinidad’s Port-of-Spain, carrying 217 Indian laborers, initiating the massive migration of South Asians across the globe (Leonce 2007, Lal 1998).
Who brought the East Indians to Trinidad?
Indians came to Trinidad and Tobago as indentured labourers to work on the sugar plantations after the abolition of slavery in 1833. The first boat that arrived on May 30, 1845, with Indian indentured labourers in Trinidad had 225 adult passengers on board who had travelled more than 36,000 km over 103 days.
An indenture system was established which brought East Indian immigrants to Trinidad from 1845 to 1917. In India agents went about the country, making contracts with recruits, and then sending these recruits to depots at the ports of embarkation.
For over three-quarters of a century (1838-1917), Indian indentured labourers were imported from the sub-continent of India to the West Indian colonies, ostensibly to fill the void created as a result of the mass exodus of ex-slaves from plantation labour following the abolition of the despicable system of slavery, and
The first settlers in Trinidad and Tobago are reported to have been two First Peoples (aka Amerindian) tribes as early as 5000BC, often described as the Arawaks and the Caribs, though new research has provided a number of alternative narratives.
Indian Arrival Day, celebrated on 30th May, commemorates the arrival of the first Indian Indentured labourers from India to Trinidad, in May 1845, on the ship Fatel Razack.
170 years ago, the first group of Indians were brought to the Caribbean. And workers, mostly from East India, were brought to the Caribbean to replace African slaves on British plantations across what was then the West Indies.
The first ships carrying indentured labourers for sugarcane plantations left India in 1838 for the Caribbean region. In fact, the first two shiploads of Indians arrived in British Guiana (modern-day Guyana) on May 5, 1838, on board the Whitby and Hesperus. These ships had sailed from Calcutta.
Between 1853 and 1866, 2,645 Chinese immigrants went to Trinidad as indentured laborers for the sugar and cacao plantations. The Chinese migration after 1911 was a result of the Chinese revolution. Between 1920s and 1940s, Chinese migration increased. Then it came to a stop during the period of the Chinese revolution.
Indigenous peoples: Our earliest inhabitants were the Carib, Arawak and Ciboney groups of indigenous peoples who migrated from South America. Today, descendants of these groups along with other indigenous people such as the Maya, Garifuna, Surinen and Tainos are still to be found in our Region.
The Indians taken to Trinidad were predominantly from the farming communities of eastern India–Bihar and Uttar Pradesh–and they brought with them seeds and cuttings of many vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices indigenous to their native land.
Columbus in Trinidad Christopher Columbus had nearly run out of drinking water when, on July 31, 1498, he sighted the three peaks of the Trinity Hills, which are said to have inspired him to name the island Trinidad. He landed near present-day Moruga, where he gathered fresh water from the river.
In 1606, four hundred and seventy (470) enslaved Africans were brought to Trinidad by Dutch slaver Isaac Duverne. This was the first recorded instance of enslaved Africans being brought to the island.
Name. The original name for the island in the Arawaks’ language was Iëre which meant “Land of the Hummingbird”. Christopher Columbus renamed it La Isla de la Trinidad (‘The Island of the Trinity’), fulfilling a vow he had made before setting out on his third voyage. This has since been shortened to Trinidad.