Radin Fernando’s engrossing account of criminal trials in Dutch-controlled Melaka presents a rich tapestry of social history based on court records from the 1780s through to the 1820s preserved in the British Library. Dutch judges recorded all crimes committed in the flourishing port city in meticulous detail, and Fernando uses this material to weave a compelling narrative about ordinary people enmeshed in the most serious crime of all, murder, as perpetrators and victims. The subjects of these reports speak for themselves, revealing their anxiety, anguish, humour, and mischief: emotions common in human life but rarely encountered in solemn historical works.

The Author

Dr Radin Fernando was born in Sri Lanka where he began his academic career as history lecturer at the University of Kelaniya in 1972. Dr Fernando went on to pursue graduate studies on the economic history of Indonesia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, subsequently receiving his PhD in history from Monash University in 1985. From 1980 to 1995, Dr Fernando was a member of the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. He then became an associate professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang briefly between 1995 and 2001. Since early 2002, Dr Fernando has been senior fellow at the National Institute of Education attached to the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he continues to specialise in Southeast Asian socio-economic history. Dr Fernando’s research interests are primarily to do with socio-economic change in Java 1800-1940, the Chinese in the Malay Archipelago 1600-1940, and economic and social change in the Malay Archipelago 1640-1840, the last of which has continuously engaged his attention in the last decade or so.

Contents
List of Illustrations
Glossary
Preface
Introduction

1. Story 1: Murder Most Foul
2. Story 2: A Misadventure
3. Story 3: Allure of Silver
4. Story 4: Angry Young Slaves
5. Story 5: Deranged Slave
6. Story 6: Mistaken Identity
7. Story 7: Price of a Meal
8. Story 8: The Irregular Detectives of Sungai Baru
9. Story 9: A Witness for the Defence
10. Story 10: A Fatal Love Affair

Bibliography