Slavery was a contentious issue between the British colonial administrators and the Malay chiefs. Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of the East India Company trade settlement in Singapore, was against the practice of slavery and wanted to prohibit it. The second British Resident of Singapore, Dr. John Crawfurd, was also a strong opponent of slavery. However, the Malay chiefs insisted that the ownership of slaves was a customary right and that their understanding of slavery was different from that of the British. Such disagreements over the interpretation of customary rights were only resolved when a treaty was concluded in 1824 that ceded the whole island to the British.
