Slavery in Malaysia

Last updated

British Malaya circa 1922 British Malaya circa 1922 en.svg
British Malaya circa 1922
An Iranun lanong warship used for piracy and slave raids in the Sulu Sea Iranun lanong warship by Rafael Monleon (1890).jpg
An Iranun lanong warship used for piracy and slave raids in the Sulu Sea
The Orang Asli of Hulu Langat in 1906. The non-Muslim Orang Asli people where subjected to intense slave raiding. Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula (1906) (14779130654).jpg
The Orang Asli of Hulu Langat in 1906. The non-Muslim Orang Asli people where subjected to intense slave raiding.

Chattel slavery existed in the area which was later to become Malaysia until it was abolished by the British in what was then the British Malaya and British Borneo (Brunei, Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan) in 1915.

Contents

From the 14th-century onward the area consisted of Islamic sultanate states, which enslaved non-Muslims. In the 19th-century, the territory successively came under the control of the British Empire, which started a process to gradually abolish slavery and slave trade from the 1870s until the final abolition in 1915.

Background

Slavery in the territories of Malaysia are not well known until the arrival of Islam in the 14th-century. After the transformation of the area to Islamic sultanates and the conversion of the ruling elite to Islam in the 14th-century, slavery and slave trade came to follow Islamic law and take on the characteristics of slavery in the Muslim world, and more information are available about slavery in the Malay sultanates. [1]

Slave trade

After conversion to Islam, the enslavement of Muslims were prohibited, which resulted in non-Muslims becoming targeted for enslavement by Muslim slave traders. [2]

Slaves were supplied to the Malay sultanates by five main methods; by slave raids against non-Muslim hill peoples (bumiputra); by commercial slave traders who captured and sold non-Muslim people to both the Malay sultanates, the various states in Indonesia and the Philippines; by Muslim pilgrims who bought slaves during their Hajj and sold them on their return; by criminals who chose to exchange their corporal punishment for enslavement; and debt bondage. [3]

In the 16th-century, most slaves in Melaka and Patani came from Java (Sunda, Madura and Balamabang) and had not been enslaved by warfare, but imported by merchants. [4]

Orang Asli

The development of the slave trade in the region was a powerful factor influencing the fate of the Orang Asli. The enslavement of Negrito tribes commenced as early as 724 CE, during the early contact of the Malay Srivijaya empire. Negrito pygmies from the southern jungles were enslaved, with some being exploited until modern times. [5] Because Islam prohibited taking Muslims as slaves,[ Sahih al-Bukhari 148] slave hunters focused their capture on the Orang Asli explaining the Malay use sakai to mean "slaves" with its present derogatory connotation.

In the early 16th century Aceh Sultanate, located in the north of the island of Sumatra, equipped special expeditions to capture slaves in the Malay Peninsula, and Malacca was at that time the largest center of the slave trade in the region. Raids on slaves in the villages of Orang Asli were common in the 18th and 19th centuries. During this time, Orang Asli groups suffered raids by the Minangkabau and Batak forces who perceived them to be of lower in status. Orang Asli settlements were sacked, with adult males being systematically executed while women and children were taken captive and sold into slavery. [6] [7]

Hamba abdi (meaning, bondslaves) formed the labour force both in the cities and in the households of chiefs and sultans. They could be servants and concubines of a rich master, and slaves also did labour work in commercial ports. [8] The situation prompted many Orang Asli to migrate further inland to avoid contact with outsiders.

The slave raids against the Batek people was preserved in memory, and during the writer Endicott's visit in Batek in Kelantan in 1981, Batek people commented on the slave raids many decades before:

"always track us, and when that was done they would take us they would hit us, like me here, he would beat me, take my child.... they would sell... They would beat us until there were no Batek left". [9]

Slave market

I significant reason for the use of slave labor in Malaya was the low population density, which made free laborers insufficient. [10]

Except for slaves used for servant positions in the private households of rich people and for sexual slavery such as concubinage, slave laborers were used for a number of different roles, such as agricultural laborers as well as craftsmen. [11]

A British report from the 1880s described slavery in Pahang and customs of "unlimited corvee, [and] the right of the Sultan to force women and children into his harem, were all abusers that had to be taken on, but only gradually and with sufficient civil servants, polic and military on the ground". [12]

Female slaves were used as house slave servants, or as sex slaves (concubines) in the harems. The Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor (r. 1886-1895) were given two girls from the Circassian slave trade, the sisters Rukiye Hanim and Hatice Hanim (Che Khatijah Hanum), as a diplomatic gift by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, of which the first became the wife of Prince Ungku Abdul Majid bin Temengung Ibrahim and the later to the Sultan of Johor himself. [13] Snouck Hurgronje noted that "the Circassian slaves" in the royal harem had came there from Constantinople and were much more expensive than other slaves, and that “the female Circassian slaves are pretentious concubines”. [14]

Abolition

In the 19th-century, the Malay sultanates gradually came under the control of the colonial British Empire. Britain abolished the British slave trade by the Slave Trade Act 1807 and slavery by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Officially the British pursued an abolitionist policy in all areas under their control after 1833, but in practice they avoided addressing the issue if they feared it could cause problems with local power holders, which was the case in Malaya, were the British for example avoided addressing the slave holding of the Sultan of Johor. [15]

From the 1870s, when the British felt their power was secure enough to introduce policies they felt would be unpopular, they actively started to pursue an abolitionist policy in Malaya, where slavery was progressively targeted and gradually abolished state by state. In 1875 the British forcibly introduced the abolition of slavery in Perak, and in 1887 they effectively undermined the institution of slavery in Pahang by providing slaves the same legal protection as free people. [16]

The British abolition policy met intense opposition. The British Resident J.W.W Birch of Preak was killed by Lela Pandak Lam in 1875 after having assisted the escape of slaves from the Royal harem of the Sultan of Perak, [17] an assassination that resulted in the outbreak of the Perak War.

A British report from the 1880s stated that it was necessary for the colonial British authorities to interfere in certain indigenous customs in the Pahang Sultanate, such as "unlimited corvee, [and] the right of the Sultan to force women and children into his harem, were all abusers that had to be taken on, but only gradually and with sufficient civil servants, polic and military on the ground". [18] The British' introduction of legal protection for slaves in Pahang resulted in a rebellion in 1891–1894. [19]

The British colonial authorities finally declared slavery abolished in British Malaya in 1915. [20]

Aftermath

Despite the British legislation, slavery still continued to exist illegally among indigenous people in Malaya and British Borneo in the 1920s. [21] The law against the Mui tsai slave trade introduced in Hong Kong was introduced by the British also in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States in 1925, but the law was not enforced. [22]

In the 1930s the Committee of Experts on Slavery and Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery (ACE) of the League of Nations conducted an investigation on slavery under George Maxwell and demanded reports from the colonial powers, among the British. [23] Maxwell did not trust the British, since he was aware of the colonial British policy to avoid interference in issues that could cause unrest, and he forcefully campaigned against the common custom in the region to sell Chinese and teochiu children as slaves under the guise of adoption, as well as to classify the mui tsai trade as slavery, which was done in Straits Settlements in 1933. [24] The mui tsai trade of Chinese children in the form of adoption, which often resulted in girls being sold to brothels, were effectively banned in Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States in 1937 via the introduction of stricter adoption laws. [25] The new legislation introduced by the British in the 1930s were deemed as more efficient than prior, and because of them, slavery in Malaya was finally entirely abolished.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orang Asli</span> Indigenous ethnic groups of Malaysia

Orang Asli are a heterogeneous indigenous population forming a national minority in Malaysia. They are the oldest inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perak War</span> 19th century colonial war in Malaysia

The Perak War (1875–1876) took place between British and local forces in Perak, a state in northwestern Malaysia. The sultan of Upper Perak and other local chiefs attempted to end foreign influence in the region and remove the British administrator James W. W. Birch. Following the killing of Birch in 1875, British forces defeated the followers of Lela Pandak Lam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batek people</span> Group of Malaysian indigenous people

The Batek people are an indigenous Orang Asli people ; belonging to the Semang group, who live in the rainforest of peninsular Malaysia. As a result of encroachment, they now primarily inhabit the Taman Negara National Park. The Batek are nomadic hunters and gatherers, so the exact location of their settlements change within the general confines of the area that they inhabit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in India</span>

The Early History of slavery in the Indian subcontinent is contested because it depends on the translations of terms such as dasa and dasyu. Greek writer Megasthenes, in his 4th century BCE work Indika or Indica, states that slavery was banned within the Maurya Empire, while the multilingual, mid 3rd Century BCE, Edicts of Ashoka independently identify obligations to slaves and hired workers, within the same Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the Ottoman Empire</span> Human enslavement in the Ottoman economy and society

Slavery was a major institution and a significant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and traditional society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Yemen</span>

Slavery in Yemen was formally abolished in the 1960s. However, it has been reported that enslavement still occurred in the 21st-century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of slavery in the Muslim world</span>

The history of slavery in the Muslim world was throughout the history of Islam with slaves serving in various social and economic roles, from powerful emirs to harshly treated manual laborers. Slaves were widely employed in irrigation, mining, and animal husbandry, but most commonly as soldiers, guards, domestic workers, and concubines. The use of slaves for hard physical labor early on in Muslim history led to several destructive slave revolts, the most notable being the Zanj Rebellion of 869–883, and led to the end of the practice. Many rulers also used slaves in the military and administration to such an extent that slaves could seize power, as did the Mamluks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Saudi Arabia</span>

Legal Chattel slavery existed in Saudi Arabia until the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Sea slave trade</span>

The Black Sea slave trade trafficked people across the Black Sea from Europe and the Caucasus to slavery in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The Black Sea slave trade was a center of the slave trade between Europe and the rest of the world from antiquity until the 19th century. One of the major and most significant slave trades of the Black Sea region was the trade of the Crimean Khanate, known as the Crimean slave trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of concubinage in the Muslim world</span>

Concubinage in the Muslim world was the practice of Muslim men entering into intimate relationships without marriage, with enslaved women, though in rare, exceptional cases, sometimes with free women. If the concubine gave birth to a child, she attained a higher status known as umm al-walad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Morocco</span>

Slavery existed in Morocco since antiquity until the 20th-century. Morocco was a center of the Trans-Saharan slave trade route of enslaved Black Africans from sub-Saharan Africa until the 20th-century, as well as a center of the Barbary slave trade of Europeans captured by the Barbary pirates until the 19th-century. The open slave trade was finally suppressed in Morocco in the 1920s. The haratin and the gnawa have been referred to as descendants of former slaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Zanzibar</span>

Slavery existed in the Sultanate of Zanzibar until 1909. Slavery and slave trade existed in the Zanzibar Archipelago for at least a thousand years. When clove and coconut plantations became a big industry on the islands, domestic slavery expanded to a point where two thirds of the populations were slaves. Zanzibar was internationally known as a major player in the Indian Ocean slave trade, where slaves from the Swahili coast of Eastern Africa were trafficked across the Indian Ocean to Oman in the Arabian Peninsula during the Zanzibar slave trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Egypt</span>

Slavery in Egypt existed up until the early 20th century. It differed from the previous slavery in ancient Egypt, being managed in accordance with Islamic law from the conquest of the Caliphate in the 7th century until the practice stopped in the early 20th-century, having been gradually phased out when the slave trade was banned in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Indonesia</span>

Chattel slavery existed in the territory that would become the modern state of Indonesia until the 20th century. Due to the fact that the Maritime South Asian archipelago corresponding to Indonesia was not unified until 1949, the history of slavery in Indonesia is not uniform, but did have common features and a somewhat common history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate</span>

Chattel slavery was a major part of society, culture and economy in the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258) of the Islamic Golden Age, which during its history included most of the Middle East. While slavery was an important part also of the preceding practice of slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), it was during the Abbasid Caliphate that the slave trade to the Muslim world reached a more permanent commercial industrial scale, establishing commercial slave trade routes that were to remain for centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate</span>

Slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate refers to the chattel slavery taking place in the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), which comprised the majority of the Middle East with a center in the capital of Damascus in Syria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bukhara slave trade</span> Slave trade in Bukhara until the 19th century

The Bukhara slave trade refers to the historical slave trade conducted in the city of Bukhara in Central Asia from antiquity until the 19th century. Bukhara and nearby Khiva were known as the major centers of slave trade in Central Asia for centuries until the completion of the Russian conquest of Central Asia in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Brunei</span>

Chattel slavery was legal in the Sultanate of Brunei until the 20th-century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the Rashidun Caliphate</span>

Slavery in the Rashidun Caliphate refers to the chattel slavery taking place in the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), a period when the Islamic Caliphate was established and the Islamic conquest expanded outside of the Arabian Peninsula.

The Firman of 1854, sometimes called the Prohibition of the Circassian and Georgian Slave Trade, refers to the Imperial Firman or Ferman (Decree) issued by Sultan Abdülmecid I in October 1854, prohibiting the slave trade in Circassian and Georgian slaves to the Ottoman Empire. It was specifically directed toward the Circassian slave trade in slave girls from the Caucasus, for sexual slavery as concubines in Ottoman harems. It did not ban slavery as such, only the trade in slaves. The decree was only enforced for four years, and retracted in 1858.

References

  1. ↑ Klein, M. A. (2014). Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition. Storbritannien: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 251
  2. ↑ Klein, M. A. (2014). Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition. Storbritannien: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 251
  3. ↑ Klein, M. A. (2014). Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition. Storbritannien: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 251
  4. ↑ A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures: An Investigation. (2000). Danmark: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. p. 424-425
  5. ↑ Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America. Vol. 17–19. Chinese Art Society of America. 1963. p. 55.
  6. ↑ Colin Nicholas (1997). "The Orang Asli of Peninsula Malaysia". Magick River. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  7. ↑ "Malaysia - Orang Asli". Minority Rights Group International. 19 June 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  8. ↑ Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia (1982). Malaysia in History. Vol. 25–28. Malaysian Historical Society.
  9. ↑ Rudge, A. (2023). Sensing Others: Voicing Batek Ethical Lives at the Edge of a Malaysian Rainforest. USA: Nebraska. 13
  10. ↑ Klein, M. A. (2014). Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition. Storbritannien: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 251
  11. ↑ Klein, M. A. (2014). Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition. Storbritannien: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 251
  12. ↑ The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. (2020). Tyskland: Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 130-131
  13. ↑ Özay, Mehmet and Ekrem Saltık. “The Myth and Reality of Rukiye Hanim in the Context of Turkish Malay Relations (1864-1904).” The Journal of Human & Society 5 (2015): 55-74.
  14. ↑ Özay, Mehmet and Ekrem Saltık. “The Myth and Reality of Rukiye Hanim in the Context of Turkish Malay Relations (1864-1904).” The Journal of Human & Society 5 (2015): 55-74.
  15. ↑ The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. (2020). Tyskland: Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 130
  16. ↑ The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. (2020). Tyskland: Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 130
  17. ↑ The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. (2020). Tyskland: Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 130
  18. ↑ The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. (2020). Tyskland: Palgrave Macmillan US. s. 130-131
  19. ↑ The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. (2020). Tyskland: Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 130
  20. ↑ Bales, K. (2004). New Slavery: A Reference Handbook. Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 60
  21. ↑ The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. (2020). Tyskland: Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 130
  22. ↑ Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 125
  23. ↑ Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 216
  24. ↑ Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 222
  25. ↑ Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 285
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.