Editing History of the Marshall Islands (section)

====Blackbirding====
{{Main|Blackbirding}}
In the 1870s, Marshall Islanders were coerced into working on plantations in other parts of the Pacific, a practice was known as "[[blackbirding]]". In 1871, the ships ''Eugene'' and ''Carl'' kidnapped men at Ailinglaplap and Mili Atolls, respectively.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=237–238}}</ref> In 1872, trader [[Bully Hayes|William Henry "Bully" Hayes]] kidnapped women on Mili while pirating the stations of business rivals.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=235}}</ref> Several blackbirding ships cruised the northern Marshalls specifically to obtain women that they could sell into [[sexual slavery]] in Fiji.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=237}}</ref> Mortality rates among Micronesian laborers in Fiji and Samoa were high, and few returned home.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=239}}</ref> The labor trade in Marshall Islands declined somewhat after the British government passed the Pacific Islander Protection Act 1872, but Jaluit continued to serve as a depot for transporting [[Micronesians#Kiribati people|Gilbertese]] laborers and some Marshallese were transported to Hawaiian plantations as late as 1882.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=237; 239–240}}</ref>