Sumatra Timur Planters: Indonesia Slavery Regime Trajectories in Colonial and Contemporary Times 1870 – 2022

This study aims to investigate and analyze the transformation of slavery and labor identification on Sumatra Timur plantations from 1870 to 2022. The recent event, which has never been researched before, covers the revelation of modern slavery by the district head in the Sumatra Timur planters in early 2022, and it will focus on slavery's long-term transformation hitherto. The study will examine the development of planters' plantations in the colonial era, beginning with De Deli Maatschappij in Sumatra Timur, Indonesia. The study will also figure out the various administrative and bureaucratic systems involved in different forms of slavery and their mobility and interactions. A comparative analysis of the trajectories of slavery regimes will be conducted, distinguishing patterns of labor recruitment in formal or informal manifestations covered by colonial slavery, the sultanate, local business people, and their legacy in this area. The data analysis will employ a historiographic approach and the integrated analytical framework for slavery trajectories introduced by Matthias van Rossum. The data sources will include the colonial archive; Koloniaal verslag from the Dutch National Programme Metamorfoze - Leiden University Library, the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia, the Indonesian Plantation Museum, the Sumatra Plantation Company Cooperation Agency. This research aims to reveal significant distinctions in the comparative analysis of slavery in colonialism and post-independence and contribute to the scholarship in the understanding of slavery in its development and the patterns of actions taken on slavery by different regimes in historical records.