Re: General Discussions
Reply #2551 –
First Nations people were massacred, exploited, confined to missions and reserves, incarcerated, underpaid or not paid, but they weren’t enslaved.
The closest Australia came to slavery was the blackbirding that brought Melanesians here to work in the cane fields. It was indentured labour rather than slavery and they were paid a pittance and returned home when their “contract” ended.
Australia wasn’t “half built on slavery”, it was probably closer to three quarters. Rather than direct slavery, the wealth that drove the development of the pastoral industry and commerce in 19th century Australia was largely derived from the Transatlantic slave trade. British families that made their money through the slave trade or through slave labour invested in Australia and the other British colonies.