Download or read book Coolies and Cane written by Moon-Ho Jung and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2006-04 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description

Download or read book Coolies written by Yin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003-05-26 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shek marvels at the new world as he and his brother, Little Wong, arrive in California. Along with hundreds of other workers, the brothers are going to build a great railroad across the West. They plan to save enough money so that their mother and little brothers can join them in America. But as days grow into months, they endure many hardships-exhausting work, discrimination, and treacherous avalanches. Inspired by actual events, this story reveals the harsh truth about life for the Chinese railroad workers in 1865, while celebrating their perseverance and bravery.

Download or read book The Coolie Trade written by Arnold J. Meagher and published by Arnold J Meagher. This book was released on 2008 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Coolie Trade The phenomenon of indentured labor, which followed upon the abolition of slavery, spread throughout the Western world in the latter two-thirds of the nineteenth century, appearing in such far-flung places as Mauritius, South Africa, Latin America, Australia, Malaya, and the Fiji Islands. Indentured labor, i.e., labor contracted under penal sanctions, was essentially a compulsory system of labor, which in practice differed little from slavery. Unlike slaves, indentured workers were supposed to receive a monthly wage, and their term of service, at least in principle, was for a fixed period of from five to eight years; but these provisions were not always adhered to, and in all other respects, indentured workers were no better off than the slaves they replaced. The widespread appearance of indentured labor is not adequately accounted for by either of the two major schools of thought in the controversy over the downfall of slavery. If the primary motivations for the abolition of slavery were humanitarian, then why did humanitarians look the other way when slave owners resorted to another form of forced labor in the system of indenture? If, on the other hand, the abolition of slavery was an economic consequence of the rise of industrialism and capitalism, as Eric Williams in his Capitalism and Slavery would have us believe, then why did the same factors, which rejected forced African labor, so easily accept forced Chinese and Indian labor? Did the principles of humanitarianism not also extend to the peoples of Asia? Or did some latent racism preclude "Asiatics" (as Chinese and Indians were called), or at least preclude them from being defended with the same vigor as Africans? Or, lulled into a false sense of security and accomplishment, were humanitarians taken in by the trappings of indenture the written contract, the monthly wage, and the limitation on the period of service? The latter could be an out for the humanitarian interpretation of the abolition movement, but what of the economic determinism of the Williams school? Indenture's camouflage might possibly have fooled the humanitarians, but the same could not be said of the economic forces of determinism. Perhaps the economic factors, like the humanitarian principles, did not have universal validity, but only applied to African slavery? The question must then be raised that perhaps indentured labor was an economically viable alternative both to slave and wage labor, at least in some areas of the world? And as such, was indenture a conscious hardnosed compromise between the proponents of slavery and the abolitionists? Else, how explain the fact that England, who led the fight against slavery and whose statesmen condemned slavery as the very antithesis of progress, also led the way in sanctioning indentured labor? It is the purpose of this work to present a comprehensive study of Chinese indentured labor in Latin America. In an attempt to place the coming of over 250,000 Chinese indentured laborers to the Caribbean and South America from 1847 to 1874 in some kind of historical perspective, this study traces the gradual rise and acceptance of the indentured system of labor in the Western world following upon the abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of the slaves. Conditions both in China and in Latin America, which triggered and sustained a flow of Chinese labor for over a quarter of a century, are examined. The transoceanic passages of the Chinese laborers is chronicled. Finally, the experience of Chinese indentured labor in the Caribbean and South America is explored. This work relies heavily upon (1) the correspondence of consuls and diplomats on the China coast and in Latin America contained in the archives of the British Public Record Office and in the British Parliamentary Papers; (2) the China coast newspapers of the nineteenth century, both English and Portuguese, including the official weekly publications of the Hong Kong and M

Download or read book Alien Nation written by Elliott Young and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2014-11-03 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sweeping work, Elliott Young traces the pivotal century of Chinese migration to the Americas, beginning with the 1840s at the start of the "coolie" trade and ending during World War II. The Chinese came as laborers, streaming across borders legally and illegally and working jobs few others wanted, from constructing railroads in California to harvesting sugar cane in Cuba. Though nations were built in part from their labor, Young argues that they were the first group of migrants to bear the stigma of being "alien." Being neither black nor white and existing outside of the nineteenth century Western norms of sexuality and gender, the Chinese were viewed as permanent outsiders, culturally and legally. It was their presence that hastened the creation of immigration bureaucracies charged with capture, imprisonment, and deportation. This book is the first transnational history of Chinese migration to the Americas. By focusing on the fluidity and complexity of border crossings throughout the Western Hemisphere, Young shows us how Chinese migrants constructed alternative communities and identities through these transnational pathways.

Download or read book Chinese Cubans written by Kathleen López and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2013 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid-nineteenth century, Cuba's infamous "coolie" trade brought well over 100,000 Chinese indentured laborers to its shores. Though subjected to abominable conditions, they were followed during subsequent decades by smaller numbers of merchants, craftsmen, and free migrants searching for better lives far from home. In a comprehensive, vibrant history that draws deeply on Chinese- and Spanish-language sources in both China and Cuba, Kathleen Lopez explores the transition of the Chinese from indentured to free migrants, the formation of transnational communities, and the eventual incorporation of the Chinese into the Cuban citizenry during the first half of the twentieth century. Chinese Cubans shows how Chinese migration, intermarriage, and assimilation are central to Cuban history and national identity during a key period of transition from slave to wage labor and from colony to nation. On a broader level, Lopez draws out implications for issues of race, national identity, and transnational migration, especially along the Pacific rim.

Download or read book Coolie Ships of the Chinese Diaspora 1846 1874 written by John Asome and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BETWEEN 1846 AND 1874, OVER 290,000 CHINESE were embarked as indentured labourers destined mainly for Peru, Cuba and the British, French and Dutch West Indies. Of these, 15.13% did not reach their destination. The demand for labour was high. Among the poor, penniless and destitute of southern China, the search for remunerated work was also high. When demand outran the initial willing supply, trickery and misrepresentation, even kidnappeing, came to be used in obtaining recruits. These were among the several factors contributing to onboard suicides, attempted insurrections and successful mutinies when captains and some crew were killed or tortured, ships set on fire and sometimes entirely destroyed. There were also occurrences when recruits signed on, intent on piracy, which was occasionally successful.Authorities in the ports of departure introduced legislation to counter abuses. Receiving countries also introduced legislation related to imported labour.In this study, John Asome provides data on 732 voyages and commentary on a good number of these. As an expert in the field, Walton Look Lai, says, John Asome has filled, "an enormous gap in our knowledge of the Chinese coolie trade....He has enabled readers and future scholars to distinguish fact from myth, reality from exaggeration, in the understanding of this vast and complex experience."

Download or read book Coolie Woman written by Gaiutra Bahadur and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize: “[Bahadur] combines her journalistic eye for detail and story-telling gifts with probing questions . . . a haunting portrait.” —The Independent In 1903, a young woman sailed from India to Guiana as a “coolie” —the British name for indentured laborers who replaced the newly emancipated slaves on sugar plantations all around the world. Pregnant and traveling alone, this woman, like so many coolies, disappeared into history. Now, in Coolie Woman, her great-granddaughter embarks on a journey into the past to find her. Traversing three continents and trawling through countless colonial archives, Gaiutra Bahadur excavates not only her great-grandmother’s story but also the repressed history of some quarter of a million other coolie women, shining a light on their complex lives. Shunned by society, and sometimes in mortal danger, many coolie women were runaways, widows, or outcasts. Many left husbands and families behind to migrate alone in epic sea voyages—traumatic “middle passages” —only to face a life of hard labor, dismal living conditions, and, especially, sexual exploitation. As Bahadur explains, however, it is precisely their sexuality that makes coolie women stand out as figures in history. Greatly outnumbered by men, they were able to use sex with their overseers to gain various advantages, an act that often incited fatal retaliations from coolie men and sometimes larger uprisings of laborers against their overlords. Complex and unpredictable, sex was nevertheless a powerful tool. Examining this and many other facets of these remarkable women’s lives, Coolie Woman is a meditation on survival, a gripping story of a double diaspora—from India to the West Indies in one century, Guyana to the United States in the next—that is at once a search for roots and an exploration of gender and power, peril and opportunity.

Download or read book Rickshaw Coolie written by James Francis Warren and published by NUS Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1880 and 1930 colonial Singapore attracted tens of thousands of Chinese immigrant laborers, brought to serve its rapidly growing economy. This book chronicles the vast movement of coolies between China and the Nanyang, and their efforts to survive in colonial Singapore. Focusing in on one particular occupation, of rickshaw coolie, this study unveils the devastating poverty of the Chinese sojourner in the colonial city, the disjunctions between colonial order and the reality of life on the streets. Drawing on a broad range of sources, including Coroner's records overlooked for many years, and making use of the technique of collective biography, this book brings to life the texture of experience, the ironies and - often - the despair of the laborers of urban Singapore. In the years since its original publication in 1986, Rickshaw Coolie has become an inspiration to those seeking to come to grips with Singapore's past.

Download or read book The Coolie Speaks written by Lisa Yun and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-22 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing radical counter-visions of race and slavery, and probing the legal and philosophical questions raised by indenture, The Coolie Speaks offers the first critical reading of a massive testimony case from Cuba in 1874. From this case, Yun traces the emergence of a "coolie narrative" that forms a counterpart to the "slave narrative." The written and oral testimonies of nearly 3,000 Chinese laborers in Cuba, who toiled alongside African slaves, offer a rare glimpse into the nature of bondage and the tortuous transition to freedom. Trapped in one of the last standing systems of slavery in the Americas, the Chinese described their hopes and struggles, and their unrelenting quest for freedom. Yun argues that the testimonies from this case suggest radical critiques of the "contract" institution, the basis for free modern society. The example of Cuba, she suggests, constitutes the early experiment and forerunner of new contract slavery, in which the contract itself, taken to its extreme, was wielded as a most potent form of enslavement and complicity. Yun further considers the communal biography of a next-generation Afro-Chinese Cuban author and raises timely theoretical questions regarding race, diaspora, transnationalism, and globalization.

Download or read book Chinese Bondage in Peru written by Watt Stewart and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-05 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE CENTURY just passed has witnessed a great movement of the sons of China from their huge country to other portions of the globe. Hundreds of thousands have fanned out southwestward, southward, and southeastward into various parts of the Pacific world. Many thousands have moved eastward to Hawaii and beyond to the mainland of North and South America. Other thousands have been borne to Panama and to Cuba. The movement was in part forced, or at least semi-forced. This movement was the consequence of, and it likewise entailed, many problems of a social and economic nature, with added political aspects and implications. It was a movement of human beings which, while it has had superficial notice in various works, has not yet been adequately investigated. It is important enough to merit a full historical record, particularly as we are now in an era when international understanding is of such extreme moment. The peoples of the world will better understand one another if the antecedents of present conditions are thoroughly and widely known. The present study has particular reference to the transference of Chinese to Peru and to their experiences in that country. As such it can make no claim to being exhaustive of the general subject. However, the author hopes that this work may become a definitive chapter of the greater story. If others co-operate, eventually some scholar will be able to make a synthesis of the whole. It will be an absorbing story when finished, one with many overtones of personal tragedy and with its unadmirable elements of personal greed and inhumanity.—Watt Stewart

Download or read book Coolitude written by Marina Carter and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deconstruction of the stereotypical depictions of the coolie in the British Empire.

Download or read book Pacific Crossing written by Elizabeth Sinn and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the nineteenth century tens of thousands of Chinese men and women crossed the Pacific to work, trade, and settle in California. Drawn initially by the gold rush, they took with them skills and goods and a view of the world which, though still Chinese, was transformed by their long journeys back and forth. They in turn transformed Hong Kong, their main point of embarkation, from a struggling infant colony into a prosperous international port and the cultural center of a far-ranging Chinese diaspora. Making use of extensive research in archives around the world, Pacific Crossing charts the rise of Chinese Gold Mountain firms engaged in all kinds of transpacific trade, especially the lucrative export of prepared opium and other luxury goods. Challenging the traditional view that the migration was primarily a "coolie trade," Elizabeth Sinn uncovers leadership and agency among the many Chinese who made the crossing. In presenting Hong Kong as an "in-between place" of repeated journeys and continuous movement, Sinn also offers a fresh view of the British colony and a new paradigm for migration studies.

Download or read book Chinese in the Post Civil War South written by Lucy M. Cohen and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1999-03-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In much of the United States, immigrants from China banded together in self-enclosed communities, “Chinatowns,” in which they retained their language, culture, and social organization. In the South, however, the Chinese began to merge into the surrounding communities within a single generation’s time, quickly disappearing from historical accounts and becoming, as they themselves phrased it, a “mixed nation.” Lucy M. Cohen’s Chinese in the Post-Civil War South traces the experience of the Chinese who came to the South during Reconstruction. Many of them were recruited by planters eager to fill the labor vacuum created by emancipation with “coolie” labor. The Planters’ aims were obstructed in part by the federal government’s determination not to allow the South the opportunity to create a new form of slavery. Some Chinese did, however, enter into labor contracts with planters—agreements that the planters often altered without consultation or negotiation with the workers. With the Chinese intent upon the inviolability of their contracts, the arrangements with the planters soon broke down. At the end of their employment on the plantations, some of the immigrants returned to China or departed for other areas of the United States. Still others, however, chose to remain near where they had been employed. Living in cultural isolation rather than in the China towns in major cities, the immigrants soon no longer used their original language to communicate within the home; they adopted new surnames, so that even among brothers and sisters variations of names existed; they formed no associations or guilds specific to their heritage; and they intermarried, so that a few generations later their physical features were no longer readily observable in their descendants. Based on extensive research in documents and family correspondence as well as interviews with descendants of the immigrants, this study by Lucy Cohen is the first history of the Chinese in the Reconstruction South—their rejection of the role that planter society had envisioned for them and their quick adaptation into a less rigid segment of rural southern society.

Download or read book The Chinese in Cuba 1847 Now written by Mauro García Triana and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2009-01-16 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with Chinese immigrants' role in the struggle for Cuban liberation and in Cuba's twentieth-century revolutionary social movement; the history of the Chinese economy in Cuba; and the Chinese contribution to Cuban music, painting, food, sport, and language. The centerpiece of the book is a translation of a study by Mauro Garc'a Triana and Pedro Eng Herrera on the history of the Chinese presence in Cuba. Over many years, Garc'a and Eng have collaborated closely on scholarly research on the Chinese contribution to Cuban life and politics, although their work is not widely known. Both are well equipped for such an enterprise: Eng as a Cuban of Chinese descent and a participant in the ethnic-Chinese revolutionary movement in Cuba, starting in the 1950s; Garc'a as a participant in the struggle against Batista and Cuban Ambassador to China during the period of the Cultural Revolution. The study is supplemented by an extensive collection of archival photographs and of paintings on Cuban-Chinese themes by Pedro Eng, who is not just a chronicler of the community but a well-known worker-artist who paints in a style described by commentators as 'naive.' The volume has three appendices: excerpts from the Cuba Commission's 1877 report on Chinese emigration to Cuba; the rebel leader Gonzalo de Quesada y Ar-stegui's pamphlet 'The Chinese and Cuban Independence,' translated from his book Mi primera ofrenda (My first offering), first published in 1892; and the chapter on 'Coolie Life in Cuba' from Duvon Clough Corbitt's Study of the Chinese in Cuba, 1847-1947 (Wilmore 1971).

Download or read book Coolies of Capitalism written by Nitin Varma and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-05-07 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Coolie” is a generic category for the “unskilled” manual labour. The offering of services for hire had various pre-colonial lineages. In the nineteenth century there was an attempt to recast the term in discursive constructions and material practices for “mobilized-immobilized” labour. Coolie labour was often proclaimed as a deliberate compromise straddling the regimes of the past (slave labour) and the future (free labour). It was portrayed as a stage in a promised transition. The tea plantations of Assam, like many other tropical plantations in South Asia, were inaugurated and formalized during this period. They were initially worked by the locals. In the late 1850s, the locals were replaced by labourers imported from outside the province who were unquestioningly designated “coolies” in the historical literature. Qualifying this framework of transition (local to coolie labour) and introduction (of coolie labour), this study makes a case for the “production” of coolie labour in the history of the colonial-capitalist plantations in Assam. The intention of the research is not to suggest an unfettered agency of colonial-capitalism in defining and “producing” coolies, with an emphasis on the attendant contingencies, negotiations, contestations and crises. The study intervenes in the narratives of an abrupt appearance of the archetypical coolie of the tea gardens (i.e., imported and indentured) and situates this archetype’s emergence, sustenance and shifts in the context of material and discursive processes.

Download or read book Chinese Coolie Emigration to Countries Within the British Empire written by Persia Crawford Campbell and published by London : P.S. King. This book was released on 1923 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Bonded Labour written by Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2016-12-31 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parallel to the abolition of Atlantic slavery, new forms of indentured labour stilled global capitalism's need for cheap, disposable labour. The famous 'coolie trade' - mainly Asian labourers transferred to French and British islands in the Indian Ocean, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, as well as to Portuguese colonies in Africa - was one of the largest migration movements in global history. Indentured contract workers are perhaps the most revealing example of bonded labour in the grey area between the poles of chattel slavery and 'free' wage labour. This interdisciplinary volume addresses historically and regionally specific cases of bonded labour relations from the 18th century to sponsorship systems in the Arab Gulf States today.