Between Slavery and Freedom

The Mauritian Liberated Africans during the Slavery Era & The Life-Story of Henry Chaloupe, a Malagasy Liberated African

 Satyendra Peerthum,

Historian, Lecturer, and Writer

On Monday, 26^th February, the Intercontinental Slavery Museum, located at the former

Military Hospital in Port Louis, will be holding a mini exhibit on the social history and experiences of the Liberated Africans in 19^th century British Mauritius in the context of the 1^st February 2024 commemorations. It is the first time that such an exhibit is being held since 2007, or almost 18 years, when the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, or AGTF, launched a similar one on the Liberated Africans or Indentured Africans associated with the history of the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site.

Who was a Liberated African?

Almost a generation before the abolition of British colonial slavery, the imperial government of Great Britain passed The Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807 which outlawed the importation of slaves into its slave colonies. In March 1808, an Order-in-Council was passed by King George III, with the approval of the British Parliament, which stipulated that Africans or negroes who were seized on slave ships by the British Navy would be forfeited to the British Crown. The Africans who were captured on these slave vessels by the naval forces of Great Britain were also called ‘Liberated Africans’, ‘Prize Negroes’, ‘Government Apprentices’, ‘Government Blacks’, ‘African Recaptives’ and ‘Prize Slaves’.

According to the royal Order-in-Council of March 1808, these Liberated Africans had to be apprenticed for 14 years, so that they may receive instructions from the masters or employers to whom they would be assigned through a signed indenture agreement. The purpose of this order was to train the Liberated Africans or Prize Negroes in a specific job, so that they would be able to support themselves in the future and eventually become free and productive members of colonial society. However, in the long run, during the course of the early nineteenth century, this supposedly benevolent scheme of the British imperial government, which was based on so-called British liberalism and humanitarian ideals, proved to be an abject failure.

In Mauritius, local colonial officials held the view that the Liberated Africans should not be freed immediately upon their arrival in the colony and, at the same time, they could not be returned to the lands of their origin. The main reason being that the British government of Mauritius, like many other colonial governments of the period, firmly believed that the Prize Negroes could be re-enslaved in their native lands.

The Occupation of the Liberated Africans

The records of the Customs Department show that between the 1810s and 1830s, the Liberated Africans were divided into three specific categories: (1) The majority of the government apprentices were allocated and distributed to private employers or masters who were given the responsibility of teaching them a particular trade; (2) a smaller number of apprentices were employed as labourers, messengers and attendants in the various departments of the local British government as well as in the cleaning and maintenance of the streets of Port Louis and of public buildings; (3) the third and last category of apprentices were enlisted into the colony’s land and sea forces. Some of them were also employed in the Royal Engineers.

Fig 1. The Indenture Agreement which Sir Robert Farquhar, the Governor of Mauritius and its Dependencies, signed with Christopher Teesdale, Esq,

Collector of Customs, on 8^th April 1815 at the Customs House in Port Louis, on behalf of Bouta, a 14-year Mozambican Liberated African from the slave ship the Aglae for a period of 14 years and which a government employed artisan will train him as a stone mason.

(MNA/Z7/E/Volume 4, Indenture of Apprentices for 1815)

Table 1. The names of 14 Liberated Africans whose Indenture Contract of 14 years were signed on their behalf by the Collector of Customs and the skilled

trade they had to learn during their Apprenticeship Period

(Compiled from MNA/Z7/E/Volume 4, Indenture of Apprentices for 1815)

At the same time, a detailed survey of the indenture agreements for the period between the 1810s and 1830s show that the male Liberated Africans were apprenticed in order to learn to become masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, house servants, stone cutters, horse handlers, porters, gardeners and carters. For their part, the female apprentices were engaged to become seamstresses, cooks, washerwomen, maids and gardeners. These were skilled trades through which the government apprentices could earn wages and support themselves and their families, unlike the slaves who most of the time were not remunerated for their labour.

The Story of Henry Chaloupe

Henry Chaloupe was a Liberated African of Malagasy origin. On 6^th June 1810, he was captured together with 2 Malagasy slaves on the vessel the Amazone by a ship of the British Royal Navy and soon after, landed on the island of Bourbon. On 3^rd January 1811, Henry was 19 years old and was apprenticed to Charles Telfair in Reunion Island. He did not know how to read and write. He was a Betsimisaraka born on the island on Sainte Marie in north east Madagascar in 1792 where he grew up and where he was captured by slave traders. Chaloupe was educated for several months by Abbe Colin, the Chief Catholic Priest of Bourbon. He able to learn to read and write and do basic math and described as an intelligent person. He was baptized and became a Christian and was taught to read and interpret The Bible. In June 1811, he was brought to Mauritius and worked in the residence of Charles Telfair as his personal servant in Port Louis.

In 1814, he was sent to work on Bois Cheri Sugar Estate where he saved enough money to purchase the freedom of Francoise, a Malagasy slave woman. She also became a Christian and got married to Henry and soon after, she gave birth to a daughter. Francoise was also employed as a house maid by Telfair. Unfortunately, she passed away in 1818 and barely a year later, Henry Chaloupe purchased the freedom of Arsenne, another Malagasy slave woman, who became a Christian and got married to him. In 1829, Henry Chaloupe was still married to her and they had several children. The first child of Henry was also baptized as a Christian and was educated at Bel Ombre Sugar Estate.

In 1819, Chaloupe was moved from the estate of Bois Cheri to Bel Ombre Sugar Estate which had recently been purchased by Telfair and some of his close associates. Telfair employed him as an “econome” or a junior administrator and gave him a pay increase. During the 1820s, Henry was relocated to Beau Manguier Sugar Estate where by the late 1820s, he became “chef sucrier” or in charge of sugar production and supervised a large number of slaves. He also owned his own house as well as a slave. He earned a salary of around 60 pounds sterling per year and enjoyed other privileges.

On 3^rd January 1825, his 14-year period of apprenticeship came to an end and Telfair requested the Collector of Customs to give him his act of freedom which was done shortly after. However, four years later, in 1829, Henry Chaloupe was still working for Charles Telfair as the head of sugar production at Beau Manguier. A decade later in 1839, Henry Chaloupe and his family went to visit his family in Sainte Marie which is an extremely rare example of a successful Liberated African returning and visiting his relatives in the land of his origin.

Many decades later, in 1872, Henry was registered as a Liberated African or African Recaptive at the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site, or the former Immigration Depot, where he was photographed at the age of 80. He was residing with his family in the village of Souillac and was a small landowner and planter. He was the oldest and only living Liberated African from the slavery era. It becomes evident that out of all the Liberated Africans who were landed and apprenticed in Mauritius, Henry Chaloupe’s story is the most successful account of a Liberated African who achieved some measure of social and economic mobility, adaptation and social integration in early 19^th century Mauritius during the slavery era and into the Age of Indenture.