IOR/R/15/2/1850

The file contains thirty-eight manumission cases, dealing with over one-hundred manumission applications or requests from individuals for help in the retrieval of enslaved relatives. All of the cases (with the exception of one occurring in Bahrain, folio 439) were heard by the Political Officer on the Trucial Coast (Sharjah).

The first half of the file (up to case 13A) is dominated by requests to the Political Officer on the Trucial Coast to assist in the recovery of kidnapped or enslaved persons. In most cases the victims were taken from Dubai territory, and the help of the ruler of Dubai (Sa'id bin Maktum) was enlisted. Correspondence in many of these cases stretches over several years, with repeated reminders for information about the missing person(s) sent by the Political Officer to Sheikh Sa'id. The office notes to some of these cases reveal the frustrations of British Agency staff at the lack of progress (folios 157, 188). In very few cases were the missing persons found and successfully reunited with their families.

The second half of the file (from case 14 onwards) consists exclusively of straightforward manumission applications, in which individuals sought their own freedom. Copies of the manumission statements (all in English, some also in Arabic), taken down at the Political Office in Sharjah, were sent to the Political Agency at Bahrain, with the recommendation that manumission certificates be issued. In all cases, manumission was approved by the Bahrain Political Agent, and manumission certificates accordingly sent for issue to the Political Officer at Sharjah. There is a noticeable surge in the numbers of manumission applications in early June 1945, with twenty-six statements being sent for approval to Bahrain in one batch (folio 286).