IDNO

P.7009.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "A [sic 4] male and 4 female slaves Mahe, Seychelles." [typed text, circa 1935]

Group portrait of four men standing, and four women, one of whom is nursing an infant, sitting on a wooden platform. A piece of canvas? has been possibly hung over a doorway to provide a plain backdrop.
The group are annotated as being 'slaves', and may been 'liberated Africans' brought to the Seychelles by the British Royal Navy between 1861 and 1875. [JD 26/01/2026]

Place

E Africa; Indian Ocean; Seychelles; Mahé

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Date

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Context: When the British took control of the islands in 1811, they enforced the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which legally outlawed the open slave trade. However, a clandestine trade continued, with slavers often circumventing laws by transferring human cargo in the outer islands.
Slavery was finally abolished throughout the British Empire, including the Seychelles, on February 1, 1835. Following this, the Royal Navy began intercepting Arab slave dhows off the East African coast and brought thousands of "liberated Africans" to the Seychelles between 1861 and 1875. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Seychelles#:~:text=Slaves%20were%20brought%20to%20the,was%20abolished%20twenty%20years%20later, JD 16/01/2026]