Coolies

Abstract The British interdiction of the slave trade in 1807 and the abolition of slavery in the British empire in 1833, and the simultaneous exponential expansion of plantation agriculture, especially sugar, generated the need for a new source of cheap labor. Indentured labor was the answer, and between 1840 and 1920 more than two million men and women signed contracts of indenture to work in the expanding plantation economies of Mauritius, the British West Indies, Guyana, and Cuba, as well as in the booming guano industry in Peru. Planters and imperial authorities found indentured laborers around the world, but the two main sources were India and China. This chapter explores indentured labor, or coolie, trade between China and Cuba. It discusses how the trade was organized; why Chinese men were open to migrating for work; how they were recruited; their experience on the voyage; and what happened to them after they arrived in Cuba.