Henry Barkly

In his brief period as an MP, Barkly supported Peel's colonial policy as he also supported Peel on the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. But Peel's downfall 'left him without prospects' (ODNB) and he accepted the Liberal offer of the of the governorship of British Guiana.

As Governor of British Guiana he introduced indentured labour, a position he had already probably taken in 1836 through the contacts between Davidsons Barkly & Co. [q.v.] with John Gladstone and others over schemes to import indentured Indian labour. See for example, Madhavi Kale, Fragments of Empire. Capital, Slavery, and Indentured Labor Migration in the British Caribbean (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), pp. 16ff. and esp. n24 on p. 182.

John Benyon, ‘Barkly, Sir Henry (1815–1898)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 ODNB, accessed 18 Nov 2012.