Blackbirding in 19th Century Peru and Rapa Nui:
In the nineteenth century, Islands in the Pacific were able to develop like any place on earth. With ranges of different climates and land that at their disposal, the islands inhabitants were able to work together on their own to identify how best to keep their land rich in produce in order to keep their people happy and healthy. That is until forced migration being a defining factor for the future outcomes of the pacific islands in a negative way; and in some ways a positive in other bigger countries like the U.S. and the U.K. Migration can be a good thing in some senses. It can teach others about different cultures that may not have fully experienced. However …show more content…
Migration as a whole benefitted Peru early on because of the European presence and their ability to get things done and keep production of goods going as best as they could. “The abolition of slave trade, in the 1850s, had serious consequences for farmers, who had relied on slave labor.” (Baten, Pelger and Twrdek 2009). The term ‘Blackbirding’ by definition means “the act or practice of kidnapping persons, and selling them abroad as slaves.” ("The Definition Of Blackbirding" 2017). The Peruvians started to raid Rapa Nui in 1862 in order for them to gain more of a work force for their more recent export, which was guano. Stealing the people from the pacific islands was an idea that was no different than enslaving human beings from Africa during the slave trade before it was abolished. The effects that Blackbirding has on a society is that it is never in agreement for both parties involved, also that the discrimination of the Rapa Nui people is unnecessary and it causes further unrest among other islands in the pacific as well as those countries around the world of which have made the vow to be rid of slavery. Migration has its positives but in particular, the negatives commonly seem to outweigh the positives. For instance, the illnesses the are caused because taking people from a civilisation …show more content…
With working conditions being so bad, the disease was spreading and in my opinion the most sickening aspect about it is that Peruvians could not even help those who needed it, even after they were cause with all of their Blackbirding. “The fifteen who lived to see their island again introduced the smallpox to a population with no immunity against this imported disease; and most of those who had escaped the clutches of the "blackbirders" lost their lives in the consequent epidemic” (Luke 1954). Easter Island had become a lot weaker after the Blackbirding because of the Smallpox and over ninety percent of the population died due to the Introduction of diseases. The small group of people still on Rapa Nui are keeping the culture alive. An island that does not allow mass amounts of public due to the fact that diseases from the outside world are far too dangerous to their culture and way of