Forced labour

The continuing afterlife of systems of control: how plantation slavery shaped power infrastructures of Western Australia.

The legacy of enslavement was not just intergenerational wealth for imperially entwined dynasties. Caribbean plantations did not produce only cotton and tobacco, or even vast profits, which were boosted by the financial compensation provided for in the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act. They also produced practices, technologies, and an advanced infrastructure of control which were then adapted in colonial settings to dispossess and control Indigenous peoples.

Families and individuals who were enriched through Caribbean enslavement were appointed as magistrates, prison governors, and police chiefs in Western Australia, thereby empowering them to dispossess traditional owners through the use of the criminal law. This powerful tool caused large numbers of Indigenous people to be driven into colonial prisons.

When Rottnest (Wadjemup) Prison, established in 1838, closed in 1903, the penal system became more decentralised with the establishment of new prisons in major towns, including Geraldton (1859), Roebourne (1884), and Cossack (1898). Roebourne (Ieramugadu) Gaol became the largest in the northwest and the second largest in the State after Fremantle (Walyalup).

Playing a major role in forming Western Australia's criminal justice system, Caribbean enslavement influenced the Australian colonial state in ways that still impact disastrously on Indigenous communities today.

The research

Researchers at the University of Liverpool, in partnership with colleagues around the UK and Western Australia, have undertaken critical work advancing this collaborative and interdisciplinary inquiry, exploring slavery diasporas, the shaping of colonial prison regimes by Caribbean knowledge bases, and the enduring legacies of colonialism.

Research on slavery diasporas has been made possible due to the foundational work by Professor Jane Lydon and colleagues for the Australian Legacies of Slavery project, as well as the experts at WA Museums and heritage partners throughout Western Australia. Collaborations with Indigenous media companies, Western Australian schools, and Aboriginal Elders have enabled further research to be undertaken, resulting in publications and award-winning documentary films.

This ongoing research initiative continues to be led by staff in the School of Law and Social Justice and the School of Histories, Languages, and Cultures.