Enslaved and then marooned on Tromelin Island for fifteen years (2014) | Hacker News Reader

Enslaved and then marooned on Tromelin Island for fifteen years (2014)

archaeology.org

162 pointscurtis29 comments

Here is a HN thread from 2015 with 131 comments for those who are interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10802088

It is well worth reading the comments - it contains a discussion about how long you can run a fire burning only wood from your boat. Out pops the guy with boat burning experience.

Another fascinating but gruesome shipwreck story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(ship)#Shipwreck

> With a dedicated band of murderous young men, Cornelisz began to systematically kill anyone he believed would be a problem to his reign of terror, or a burden on their limited resources. The mutineers became intoxicated with killing, and no one could stop them. They needed only the smallest of excuses to drown, bash, strangle or stab to death any of their victims, including women and children

More: http://members.iinet.com.au/~bill/batavia.html

Earlier today the headline read “illegally enslaved”, like in the linked article. I almost pointed out that that was redundant, but I figured there was no point. Apparently it did bother somebody.

It's not redundant. Slavey was legal at the time, but these people in particular were illegally enslaved.

No. They were not. They were illegally purchased.

Chattel slavery is illegal. You could argue that other forms exist legally, such as prison labor: prisoners are explicitly exempted from the 14th amendment. It’s the eighth amendment prisoners rely on. Note that they’re paid? So have many types of slaves, including roman and american chattel slaves.

Don't forget about "children".

Legal slavery was commonplace at the time the events described took place.

Slavery is perfectly legal today in many countries, including the United States. The Constitution permityls slavery as the punishment for a crime (which is why prisoners can be worked for essentially zero pay).

Amazing story. Was I the only one who was disappointed that I cannot click the images to see a larger photos?? Surprisingly the internet doesn't seem to have a better resolution as well... :(

Much of the world has been explored and photographed, but not necessarily since the advent of high resolution digital photography and drones. I have a dream of sailing to remote places like this and documenting them for Wikipedia.

What a coincidence, just a few hours ago, I found similar stories:

Blackbirding in the Pacific: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbirding

All able-bodied men kidnapped from the 3 islands of Tokelau: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokelau

There is a great movie called Paradise Lagoon that is similar- a family and their domestic servants are stranded on an island. Spoiler: the butler is the only guy fit to lead everyone to survival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Admirable_Crichton_(1957_f...

I wonder which life would have been better for them. Would you trade everything for freedom?

I should say “freedom”. Three square miles of freedom that is.

Freedom and near-certain death!

What a neat story. I read the whole article, thanks for sharing.

"Illegally enslaved" isn't accurate. The slave trade was legal at the time. What wasn't legal was the ship (and/or captain), and the destination.

How is that not accurate? Renting out a room for someone to live in is legal but in some places it isn't illegal to do so without the proper zoning and/or permits. Therefore you would call someone doing that "illegally renting".

Because "enslaving" refers to the action of making someone a slave, not to the action of shipping someone who was already a slave to a new location. That's "illegally shipped", not "illegally enslaved".

Agreed on this point, although I also find the terminology of "legally enslaved" to be poor as I'm sure the enslaved people themselves did not give credence to that law.

I think it should be illegal in all contexts because the slaves did not consent and they were people too. Not recognizing them as such does not make it legal.

They're talking about what was legal then. We're all agreed slavery should be illegal now, even if it isn't explicitly set down in law.

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

Reprehensible as this likely comes off to most, I think it's entirely worth voicing for the fact that it reminds us to consider our present day actions, how they fight into greater society, and if we are only cooperating because our pay depends on it.

I have to agree. The title seemed to indicate being abducted as slaves was part of the story. But, the slaves were part of a legal slave trade at the time. The real story was their survival as castaways. The fact that they were slaves is incidental.

That's a hell of a nitpick, but ok, we've taken 'illegally' out above.

This is not the nitpickers anonymous meeting?

(Does he get a prize?)

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