ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the somewhat-neglected internal organization of Arab seamen recruited at Aden from the late nineteenth century. It explores the growing power of the recruiting agent in the context of tighter immigration restrictions introduced in Britain after the First World War. The book presents the social and economic lives of West African Kru seamen between the 1880s and the 1960s. It describes the interaction of Arab seamen with the socio-political aspects of the local community in the inter-war years and relates the so-called ‘Arab Question’ to the general political situation of South Shields. The book also describes the ‘survival strategies’ of Lascar seamen in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century London. It provides important dimensions of labour and maritime history, stories which have often been institutionally-based and fail to recognize the ethnic diversity of the workforce.
