"Presents a history of slaves, freedmen, and indentured laborers in colonial Mauritius, exploring the role these populations played in shaping the Mauritian experience." Journal of Economic Literature

• 1. Introduction; 2. Creating a garden of sugar: land, labor and capital, 1721–1936; Part I. Labor and Labor Relations: 3. A state of continual disquietude and hostility: maroonage and slave labor, 1721–1835; 4. Indentured labor and the legacy of maroonage: illegal absence; desertion, and vagrancy, 1835–1900; Part II. Land and the Mobilization of Domestic Capital: 5. Becoming an appropriated people: the rise of the free population of color, 1729–1830; 6. The general desire to possess land: ex-apprentices and the post-emancipation era, 1839–51; 7. The regenerators of agricultural prosperity: Indian immigrants and their descendants, 1834–1936; 8. Conclusion.