Emancipation and Arrival How Emancipation Day and Indian Arrival Day have Shaped Ethnic Identities in Twenty-first Century Trinidad and Tobago

1 August 1834 marked the formal end of enslavement in the British Caribbean, and 1 August 1838 saw the termination of the quasi-slavery ‘apprenticeship’ system. The day was celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago till the early twentieth century, but it was not an official holiday. In the 1920s, the first Monday in August was made a holiday as ‘Discovery Day’. Several individuals and groups, in the years before and after national Independence, lobbied for a high-profile celebration of 1 August as Emancipation Day. While a single piece of legislation ended slavery, the indenture contracts of Indian immigrants terminated at different times during the period of indentured Indian immigration to Trinidad. A new government, with an Indo-Trinidadian prime minister, declared the year 1996 that the holiday would be annual and would be known as Indian Arrival Day.