‘Coolie Ghat’
“In Mauritius, even before the abolition of slavery on 1st February 1835, planters called for labourers as the sugar industry expanded rapidly.
From 1834 to 1910, Mauritius, known as the "Great Experiment," received the greatest number of indentured labourers thus preceding other colonies such as Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, Cuba, Peru and Reunion Island. Nearly half a million indentured labourers climbed up the steps of the Aapravasi Ghat between 1849 and 1910. Ninety five percent of them came from the Indian subcontinent but indentured labourers were also recruited in Africa, Madagascar, China and South-East Asia bringing a significant dimension to the Mauritian experience.
Before the construction of the Aapravasi Ghat (previously known as the 'Coolie Ghat') in Trou Fanfaron in Port Louis, several buildings were used as depots in Port Louis to receive indentured labourers. The Aapravasi Ghat was constructed in 1849 to improve the management of indentured immigration. The depot was enlarged in the 1850s and 1860s to receive the increasing flow of labourers. By 1860, the immigration depot was extended to a carrying capacity of 600 labourers.
In 1864, the railway line separated the depot in two distinct parts: one side received the newly arrived labourers and the other was devoted to the management of labourers already under contract or about to leave the territory on termination of their engagement. From 1849 to 1910, the Aapravasi Ghat played a central role in the day-to-day functioning of the indenture labour system and in the lives of these workers and their descendants in Mauritius.”