On May 10th, 1845 the first ship named the SS Blundell transporting Indian indentured servants arrived in Jamaica. The ship contained 200 men, 28 women and 33 children who would go on to work for the Halse Hall and Mammee Gully estates in Clarendon parish.

The indentured servants were initially sent to the plantations by mule cart, and later by crammed freight trains transporting them to plantations in Portland, St Thomas, St Mary, Clarendon and Westmoreland. They were prohibited from leaving the plantations without a permit.

Indentureship would continue for 72 years, with 37,027 Indians emigrating to Jamaica from 1845 to 1916. Today, Indians are the largest ethnic minority on the island, making up 3% of Jamaica’s population.