1890 Photograph of the Brindjey Tobacco Estate, Sumatra

Clearing Forests for Tobacco.

This is a rare c. 1890 set of albumen photographs of the Bindjey Estate tobacco plantation in North Sumatra. They provide a look into the inner workings of a colonial-era plantation at the turn of the 20th century.

A Closer Look

The photographs, representing the recto and verso of a single card, depict parts of the large Bindjey tobacco plantation in the Sultanate of Deli, a semi-autonomous protectorate of the Dutch East Indies known for its tobacco plantations worked by imported laborers. The top photograph presents the Assistants' House, a residence for European overseers of the plantation, while figures of several nationalities pose for the photo, including what looks to be a Chinese man with the distinctive queue of the era. Additional structures can be seen in the background while tobacco plants grow in neat rows in the foreground.

The bottom photograph, seemingly candid rather than posed, looks out over a partly cultivated field and a forest in the process of being cleared. Again, a mix of European and Asian figures is evident, while in the far distance is a building and more tobacco fields.

Bindjey Estate

Bindjey Estate (misspelled here as Brindjey, often spelled in a variety of ways including Binjai) was a major tobacco plantation from the Dutch colonial era (late 1800s-early 1900s) in North Sumatra, famous for its massive tobacco production, especially for the 'Deli Wrapper' cigar that was considered a top product in Europe and America. This estate was owned by Gustav Engelbrecht, a German from Hanover, who managed the estate in Sumatra before returning to Hamburg, Germany, in 1892. Like other colonial cash crop plantations, the Bindjey Estate relied on cheap labor, in this case Javanese and Chinese 'coolies' who were at best indentured servants and at worst effective slaves. Indeed, workers at Bindjey, as on other plantations, were subject to the Poenale Sanctie, which allowed plantation owners to beat or imprison workers for 'breach of contract' if they were seen as being lax or attempting to run away.

Publication History and Census

These photographs were taken c. 1890 by an unknown photographer. Stylistically, they are similar to the later published works of the famed German photographer Charles J. Kleingrothe (1864 - 1942) and could be early examples of his work, though the captions suggest an English-speaking photographer. We have not identified any other examples.

Condition

Very good. Mounted albumen photographs. Image represents recto (front) and verso (back) of single card.