Aug 23, 2019 - In the 1860s, the demand for labor in Queensland, particularly in the burgeoning sugar cane industry, saw trading ships turn into labour ' .
As an Australian, I am ashamed to have just realized the depth of slavery that existed in Queensland with the 59,000 Pacific Islanders who came to Australia willingly or by force to work on the sugar cane fields.
There was cruelty, death, violence and the burial of unknown Pacific people in unmarked graves in Australia.
We all know the depth of cruelty in the United States with Africans kidnapped and sold to slave owners. There was a civil war that grew out of slavery and racism that continues to the present day.
There was extensive slavery in Great Britain with slaves taken to work in mines and factories.
The greatest number of slaves was taken to work on the sugar cane fields of Jamaica to produce sugar as the basic ingredient for rum. British families became billionaires with profits from the slave and rum trade.
Is the new program of recruiting fruit pickers the modern version of blackbirding in Australia? Workers seem to be exploited with rent paid in one sugar farm to live in barracks.
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