'File 5/196 II Slave traffic in the Gulf'

Title:

'File 5/196 II Slave traffic in the Gulf'

Date:

1929/1938

Description:

Abstract: The volume contains correspondence related to slave trading activity in the Persian Gulf, including intelligence reports on suspected slave traders, and the movement of suspected slaves across the Gulf by traders. The volume also includes a number of reports on the extent and nature of the slave trade in the Persian Gulf during the period in question. Two reports are written by the Political Resident (Sir Hugh Biscoe) in 1930. The first describes the extent of the slave trade in the Persian Gulf (folios 34-40), with details on the principal slave trade routes and sources of slaves, including the Makran coast and the Nejd and Hejaz regions of Arabia. The second report investigates the character of domestic slavery in the Persian Gulf (folios 43-50). Domestic slaves, wrote Biscoe, include those employed as bodyguards to the shaikhs, house servants and coffee makers. Biscoe noted that the lots of these slaves were generally good, contrasting their lot to the 'industrial slaves', i.e. those employed as pearl divers or date plantation workers. Biscoe described the region's indebted pearl divers as being 'virtual slaves.' Another report, written by Charles Belgrave, Advisor to the Ruler of Bahrain, describes the pearling industry around 1930, and the measures taken by the previous Political Agent at Bahrain (Major Clive Daly) to improve the lot of indebted pearl divers (folios 23-26). The volume also contains a report, written in 1934 by the then Political Agent in Bahrain, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Loch, on the slave trade in Nejd/Hejaz regions (folios 159-60). Loch writes that slaves taken from the Baluchistan-Makran region generally end up in this part of Arabia. A list of slaves manumitted at Sharjah between 1936 and 1938 is also included (folios 174-80).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 218; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 9-170; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

Language:

English

Type:

Archival file

Type (Narrower):

Other Texts

Type (Broader):

Text

Subject:

Boundary disputes
Pearl industry and trade
Reports

Rights:

غير معروف

Identifier:

81055/vdc_100000000193.0x0000cb_ar
81055/vdc_100000000193.0x0000cb_en
IOR/R/15/1/230
IOR/R/15/1/230

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