"After the abolition of slavery, the British found a new populace to immigrate and work the plantations: East Indians. Between 1845 and 1917 145,000 Indians went to Trinidad to work as indentured servants. The Indians were imported to Trinidad the stable and manageable labour force which, the sugar planters believed, had been lost to them since the full emancipation of the blacks." "The system was established in such a way that male Indians who had lived in Trinidad for 10 years could be granted 10 acres of Crown lands in commutation of all claims to a free return passage to India", for which many Indians opted.