Work obligation and booklet checks extend labor surveillance

The 1851 colonial-bank law is promulgated in French Guiana. Although proponents described colonial banks as a possible source of loans for new freedpeople to acquire land, the banking framework also...

A decree governs immigration, work contracts, rural policing, and the punishment of “vagrancy” in the colonies. In the post-emancipation setting, rules tying legal status and mobility to work made...

A second decree organizes recruitment, transport, arrival, and repatriation for workers sent to French colonies. On paper it required informed consent and set rules for voyages and contracts. In...

Local order no. 398 establishes prisons and disciplinary workshops for workers sanctioned under the 13 February decree. It allowed those sentenced to perform labor and, in specified circumstances,...

Order no. 419 defines worker booklets and their delivery in French Guiana. The booklet recorded work engagements and enabled officials to monitor workers’ movements. It was a tool of post-emancipation...

A local order creates a special immigration commissioner, part of the administrative apparatus for recruiting and distributing contracted labor. After formerly enslaved people resisted plantation work...

A contract between the French maritime ministry and the firms Le Campion and Théroulde provides for the introduction of 3,000 Indian workers to French Guiana during 1855–1857. The agreement reflects a...

Order no. 698 sets local procedures for introducing Indian and African contracted workers, including the assignment of workers to employers and checks on contracts and transport. The same framework...

The Diane reached Cayenne with 308 African workers recruited along the West African coast. Historian Serge Daget reports the workers were engaged for six years. This post-abolition recruitment aimed...

The ship Sigisbert-Cézard reaches French Guiana with Indian workers recruited from Pondicherry and Karikal. The surviving memorial register lists 822 people embarked and 801 arrivals. The names and...