Coolie facts for kids
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A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent.
The word coolie was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders across Asia, and by the 18th century would refer to migrant Indian indentured labourers, and by the 19th century during the British colonial era, would gain a new definition of the systematic shipping and hiring of Asian workers under contract on plantations that had been formerly worked by enslaved Africans. The word has had a variety of other implications and is sometimes regarded as offensive or a pejorative, depending upon the historical and geographical context; in India, its country of origin, it is still considered a derogatory slur. It is similar, in many respects, to the Spanish term peón, although both terms are used in some countries with different implications.
The word originated in the 17th-century Indian subcontinent and meant day labourer, but since the 20th century the word was used in British Raj India to refer to porters at railway stations. Coolie is now regarded as derogatory and/or a racial slur in the Americas (more so Caribbean), Oceania, and Africa / Southeast Asia – in reference to other people from Asia. The term differs from the word Dougla which refers to people of mixed African and Indian ancestry. Coolie is instead used to refer to people of fully blooded Indian descent whose ancestors migrated to the British former colonies of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. This is particularly so in South Africa, the Eastern African countries, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, other parts of the Caribbean, Mauritius, Fiji, and the Malay Peninsula.
In modern Indian popular culture, coolies have often been portrayed as working-class heroes or anti-heroes. Indian films celebrating coolies include Deewaar (1975), Coolie (1983), and several films titled Coolie No. 1 (released in 1991, 1995, and 2020).
Contents
History of the coolie trade
End of African slavery and beginning of the coolie trade
The importation of Asian migrant laborers into European colonies was not new, occurring as early as the 17th century. However, in the 19th century, a far more robust system of the coolie trade emerged, in direct response to the end of the African slave trade and the end of slavery as the preferred mode of labor in many plantations across European colonies. The British were the first to experiment with coolie labor—as early as 1806, 200 Chinese were sent to the colony of Trinidad; the very next year, in 1807 Britain outlawed the African slave trade with the Slave Trade Act of 1807. The "Trinidad experiment" was not a success, with only twenty to thirty of the original laborers staying into the 1820s. However, such initial efforts inspired Sir John Gladstone, one of the earliest proponents of coolie labor, to seek out coolies for his sugar plantations in British Guiana, in hopes of replacing the African labor force after the abolition of slavery in Britain in 1833. Social and political pressure led to the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire in 1833, with other European nations following suit. Labour-intensive industries in the colonies, such as cotton and sugar plantations, mines, and railway construction, were left without a free source of manpower. As a consequence, a large-scale trade in Asian (primarily Indian and Chinese) indentured labourers began in the 1820s to fill this vacuum. In 1838, 396 South Asian workers arrived in British Guiana, and such a stream of migrant labor would continue until the First World War. Other nations, especially imperial powers such as France, Spain, and Portugal, soon followed suit, especially as Britain, through several treaties such as Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1810 and the 1814 Treaty of Paris, also pressured other nations to abolish the African slave trade. In places such as the British Empire, the importation of Asian migrant laborers began in earnest after the abolition of slavery. In places such as Cuba, however, African slavery would not end until 1886, about forty years after coolies were introduced.
Debates over coolie labor as a form of slavery or free labor
Given the close association of the beginning of coolie labor with African slavery, many contemporaries, including plantation owners, abolitionists, and government officials, struggled over whether coolie labor was just yet another form of slavery or a form of free labor. Proponents of coolie labor as free labor often pointed out the existence of a labor contract—between the coolie and the employer, the contract would define the obligations of both parties. In Cuba, for example, all coolies were issued a contract before leaving for Cuba—the contract would be printed in both Chinese and Spanish, and legalized by government officials. The contract would include details such as the name, age, and home village of the coolie, and usually guaranteed, in return for eight years of servitude, a pay of 1 peso a week, as well as some specified amount of rice, meat or fish, vegetables, and some clothes; it also provided for some days off, as well as medical attention. The state also regulated the various stages of recruitment, transportation, and employment. Coolie labor, unlike slavery, was under contract, consensual, paid, and temporary, with the coolie to regain complete freedom after their term of service. Regulations were put in place as early as 1837 by the British authorities in India to safeguard these principles of voluntary, contractual work and safe and sanitary transportation. The Chinese government also made efforts to secure the well-being of their nation's workers, with representations being made to relevant governments around the world. Some antislavery activists saw coolie labor as paving the way towards abolition, to gradually and peacefully replace African slave labor without loss of profit.
In practice, however, as many opponents of coolie labor argued, abuse and violence was rampant. They generally signed on for a period of two to five years. In addition to having their passage paid for, coolies were also paid under twenty cents per day, on average. However, over a dollar would be taken from them every month in order to pay off their debts. This indentureship was a way for Europeans to create the illusion of "free" labor while still keeping the benefits of slavery. The coolie trade was often compared to the earlier slave trade and they accomplished very similar things. Similarly to slave plantations, one Caribbean estate could have over six hundred coolies, with Indians making up over half. Also similarly to slave plantations, there were preconceived notions of how different ethnicities worked. In his paper "Eastern Coolie Labour", W. L. Distant recalled his time on an estate observing the work ethic and behaviors of coolies. Just as many believed that Africans had an affinity for hard outdoor labor, Distant believed that Indian, Chinese, and Japanese coolies were different in their ability to perform certain jobs. Indian coolies were viewed as lower in status. Those who ran estates believed that Chinese and Japanese coolies were harder working, united, and clean. Indian coolies, on the other hand, were viewed as dirty and were treated as children who required constant supervision. Also similar to slavery, coolie labor served British interests by upholding their political economy. Since slave trade was illegal, the British bourgeoisie needed another group to perform the manual labor for the lucrative plantations.
Abolitionists in Britain and U.S., such as the British Anti-Slavery Society and British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, were highly critical of coolie labor as being no better than slavery. Proslavery advocates, particularly in the American South, condemned coolie labor, but used it to argue against the abolition of Black slavery, claiming the latter was more "humane" than the former.
Chinese coolies
From British colonies
Workers from China were mainly transported to work in Peru and Cuba. However, many Chinese laborers worked in British colonies such as Singapore, New South Wales, Jamaica, British Guiana (now Guyana), British Malaya, Trinidad and Tobago, British Honduras (now Belize) – as well as in the Dutch colonies within the Dutch East Indies, and Suriname. The first shipment of Chinese labourers was to the British colony of Trinidad in 1806 "in an attempt to establish a settlement of free peasant cultivators and labourers". On many of the voyages the labourers were transported on the same vessels that had been used to transport African slaves in the previous years.
The coolie-slave trade run by American captains and local agents and mainly consisting of debt slavery, was called the 'pig trade' as the living conditions were not dissimilar to that of livestock; on some vessels as many as 40 percent of the coolies died en route. As many as 500 were crammed into a single ship hold, leaving no room to move. Some of these were Chinese women kidnapped to be slaves under the demand of American and Caribbean plantation owners. The recruited labourers were required to pay for their ship fares from meager earnings which were frequently below living expenses, forcing them into virtual slavery. The coolies were also stamped on their backs like livestock. Foreign merchants took advantage of the unequal treaties negotiated between the Qing government and Western powers after the Opium Wars, as well as the resulting political and economic instability, to broker deals for "contracted" workers. Portuguese Macao was the center of this trade: coolie slavery was described as "the only real business" in Macao from 1848 to 1873, generating enormous profits for the Portuguese until it was banned due to pressure from the British government.
In 1847, two ships from Cuba transported workers to Havana to work in the sugar cane fields from the port of Xiamen, one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened to the British by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The trade soon spread to other ports in Guangdong, and demand became particularly strong in Peru for workers in the silver mines and the guano collecting industry. Australia began importing workers in 1848, and the United States began using them in 1865 on the First Transcontinental Railroad construction. These workers were deceived about their terms of employment to a much greater extent than their Indian counterparts, and consequently, there was a much higher level of Chinese emigration during this period.
The trade flourished from 1847 to 1854 without incident, until reports began to surface of the mistreatment of the workers in Cuba and Peru. As the British government had political and legal responsibility for many of the ports involved – including Amoy – such ports were immediately closed. Despite these closures, the trade simply shifted to the more accommodating port within the Portuguese enclave of Macau.
Many coolies were first deceived or kidnapped and, then kept in barracoons (detention centres) or loading vessels in the ports of departure, as were African slaves. Their voyages, which are sometimes called the Pacific Passage, were as inhumane and dangerous as the notorious Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade. Mortality was very high; it is estimated that from 1847 to 1859, the average mortality rate for coolies aboard ships to Cuba was 15.2 percent, and losses among those aboard ships to Peru were as high as 40 percent in the 1850s, and 30.44 percent from 1860 to 1863.
They were sold and were taken to work in plantations or mines with very bad living and working conditions. The duration of a contract was typically five to eight years, but many coolies did not live out their term of service due to hard labour and mistreatment. Survivors were often forced to remain in servitude beyond the contracted period. The coolies who worked on the sugar plantations in Cuba and in the guano beds of the Chincha Islands (the islands of Hell) of Peru were treated brutally. Seventy-five percent of the Chinese coolies in Cuba died before fulfilling their contracts. More than two-thirds of the Chinese coolies who arrived in Peru between 1849 and 1874 died within the contract period. In 1860 it was calculated that of the 4000 coolies brought to the Chinchas since the trade began, not one had survived.
Because of these unbearable conditions, Chinese coolies often revolted against their Ko-Hung bosses and foreign company bosses at ports of departure, on ships, and in foreign lands. The coolies were put in the same neighbourhoods as Africans and, since most were unable to return to their homeland or have their wives come to the New World, many married African women. The coolies' interracial relationships and marriages with Africans, Europeans and Indigenous peoples, formed some of the modern world's Afro-Asian and Asian Latin American populations.
In Spanish, colonos asiáticos was the for coolies. The Spanish colony of Cuba feared slavery uprisings such as those that took place in Haiti and used coolies as a transition between slaves and free labor. They were neither free nor slaves. Indentured Chinese servants also labored in the sugarcane fields of Cuba well after the 1884 abolition of slavery in the country. Two scholars of Chinese labor in Cuba, Juan Pastrana and Juan Pérez de la Riva, substantiated horrific conditions of Chinese coolies in Cuba and stated that coolies were slaves in all but name. Denise Helly is one researcher who believes that despite their slave-like treatment, the free and legal status of the Asian laborers in Cuba separated them from slaves. The coolies could challenge their superiors, run away, petition government officials, and rebel according to Rodriguez Pastor and Trazegnies Granda. Once they had fulfilled their contracts the colonos asiáticos integrated into the countries of Peru, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba. They adopted cultural traditions from the natives and also welcomed in non-Chinese to experience and participate into their own traditions. Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Havana had Latin America's largest Chinatown.
In South America, Chinese indentured labourers worked in Peru's silver mines and coastal industries (i.e., guano, sugar, and cotton) from the early 1850s to the mid-1870s; about 100,000 people immigrated as indentured workers. They participated in the War of the Pacific, looting and burning down the haciendas where they worked, after the capture of Lima by the invading Chilean army in January 1880. Some 2000 coolies even joined the Chilean Army in Peru, taking care of the wounded and burying the dead. Others were sent by Chileans to work in the newly conquered nitrate fields.
The Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation, of which later U.S. president Herbert Hoover was a director, was instrumental in supplying Chinese coolie labour to South African mines from c. 1902 to c. 1910 at the request of mine owners, who considered such labour cheaper than native African and white labour. The horrendous conditions suffered by the coolie labourers led to questions in the British parliament as recorded in Hansard.
In 1866, the British, French and Chinese governments agreed to mitigate the abuse by requiring all traders to pay for the return of all workers after their contract ended. The employers in the British West Indies declined these conditions, bringing the trade there to an end. Until the trade was finally abolished in 1875, over 150,000 coolies had been sold to Cuba alone, the majority having been shipped from Macau. These labourers endured conditions far worse than those experienced by their Indian counterparts. Even after the 1866 reforms, the scale of abuse and conditions of near slavery did not get any better – if anything they deteriorated. In the early 1870s increased media exposure of the trade led to a public outcry, and the British, as well as the Qing government, put pressure on the Portuguese authorities to bring the trade at Macau to an end; this was ultimately achieved in 1874. By that time, a total of up to half a million Chinese workers had been exported.
In the United States
Debates over coolie labor and slavery was key in shaping the history of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. In February 1862, “An Act to Prohibit the ‘Coolie Trade’ by American Citizens in American vessels,” also known as the Anti-Coolie Act, was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, which prohibited any U.S. citizens and residents from trading in Chinese subjects, known as “coolies.” In one aspect, the Anti-Coolie Act was the last of the U.S. slave trade laws, as well as the beginning of the end of slavery; in the September of that year, Lincoln would also issue the Emancipation Proclamation; in another aspect, it was the beginning of Chinese exclusion in the U.S. and the beginning of federal immigration restriction. Within a decade significant levels of anti-Chinese sentiment had built up. In 1868, the Burlingame Treaty would ensure certain protections for Chinese immigrants in the U.S. and emphasize that any Chinese immigration to the U.S. must be free and voluntary, reaffirming that “coolies,” being unfree, were unwelcome and prohibited from entering the U.S. In 1875, Congress would pass the Page Act, which prohibited the bringing of any Chinese subjects without their consent in order to hold them for a term of service. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act would bar the entry of any Chinese laborer to the U.S.
Despite attempts to restrict the influx of cheap labour from China, beginning in the 1870s Chinese workers helped construct a vast network of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These levees made thousands of acres of fertile marshlands available for agricultural production. Although Chinese workers contributed to the building of the first First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States and of the Canadian Pacific Railway in western Canada, Chinese settlement was discouraged after completion of the construction. State legislation, such as California's Foreign Miners' Tax Act of 1850 and 1852, would target Chinese immigrants in the U.S. The 1879 Constitution of the State of California declared that "Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labour shall be void."
The term coolie was also applied to Chinese workers recruited for contracts on cacao plantations in German Samoa. German planters went to great lengths to secure access to their "coolie" labour supply from China. In 1908, a Chinese commissioner, Lin Shu Fen, reported on the cruel treatment of coolie workers on German plantations in the western Samoan Islands. The trade began largely after the establishment of colonial German Samoa in 1900 and lasted until the arrival of New Zealand forces in 1914. More than 2000 Chinese "coolies" were present in the islands in 1914 and most were eventually repatriated by the New Zealand administration.
Indian coolies
By the 1820s, many Indians were voluntarily enlisting to go abroad for work, in the hopes of a better life. European merchants and businessmen quickly took advantage of this and began recruiting them for work as a cheap source of labour. The British began shipping Indians to colonies around the world, including British Mauritius, British Fiji, New South Wales, British Natal, British East Africa, British Tanganyika, British Somaliland, British Bechuanaland, British Seychelles, British Uganda, British Northern Rhodesia, British Rhodesia, British Nyasaland, British Guiana, British Trinidad and Tobago, British Jamaica, British Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, British Honduras, Saint Kitts and Nevis, British Barbados, the rest of the British West Indies, and British Malaya. The Dutch shipped workers to labor on the plantations on Dutch Surinam the Netherlands Antilles, and the Dutch East Indies. The French shipped laborers to Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, the rest of the French West Indies, and Réunion.
A system of agents was used to infiltrate the rural villages of India and recruit labourers. They would often deceive the credulous workers about the great opportunities that awaited them for their own material betterment abroad. The Indians primarily came from the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but also from Tamil Nadu and other areas to the south of the country. Indians had faced a great number of social and economic disasters, causing them to be more eager than other groups to leave India. In the last part of the nineteenth century alone, there were 24 famines.
Without permission from the British authorities, the French transported Indian workers to their sugar producing colony, Reunion Island, from as early as 1826. By 1830, over 3,000 labourers had been transported. After this trade was discovered, the French successfully negotiated with the British in 1860 for permission to transport over 6,000 workers annually, on condition that the trade would be suspended if abuses were discovered to be taking place.
The British began to transport Indians to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, starting in 1829. Slavery had been abolished, with the planters receiving two million pounds sterling in compensation for the loss of their slaves. The planters turned to bringing in a large number of indentured labourers from India to work in the sugar cane fields. Between 1834 and 1921, around half a million indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport and on construction sites.
In 1837, the Raj issued a set of regulations for the trade. The rules provided for each labourer to be personally authorised for transportation by an officer designated by the Government, limited the length of service to five years subject to voluntary renewal, made the contractor responsible for returning the worker after the contract elapsed and required the vessels to conform to basic health standards.
Despite this, conditions on the ships were often extremely crowded, with rampant disease and malnutrition. Coolies were also not informed about the length of the trip or about the island that they would be going to. The workers were paid a pittance for their labour, and were expected to work in often awful and harsh conditions. Although there were no large scale scandals involving coolie abuse in British colonies, workers often ended up being forced to work, and manipulated in such a way that they became dependent on the plantation owners so that in practice they remained there long after their contracts expired; possibly as little as 10% of the coolies actually returned to their original country of origin. Colonial legislation was also passed to severely limit their freedoms; in Mauritius a compulsory pass system was instituted to enable their movements to be easily tracked. Conditions were much worse in the French colonies of Reunion and Guadeloupe and Martinique, where workers were 'systematically overworked' and abnormally high mortality rates were recorded for those working in the mines. Generally, Indian coolies were noted to have higher mortality rates as a whole, and were less likely to be able to return home. Companies would often promise good food, durable clothing, adequate housing, safe passage, and schools. However, these promises were rarely kept, leading to the higher mortality rate and image of Indian coolies being "dirty".
The voyage itself was often a highly dangerous venture, especially for coolie women. Though some ships had made attempts to prevent assault and general mistreatment in sailor contracts, these crimes were still common. Even with punishments in place, on ship and land, men who assaulted women and children were rarely punished, leaving women in an even more vulnerable position.
However, there were also attempts by the British authorities to regulate and mitigate the worst abuses. Workers were regularly checked up on by health inspectors, and they were vetted before transportation to ensure that they were suitably healthy and fit to be able to endure the rigours of labour. Children under the age of 15 were not allowed to be transported from their parents under any circumstances.
The first campaign against the 'coolie' trade in England likened the system of indentured labour to the slavery of the past. The campaign against coolie emigration was led by Joseph Sturge, with the Society of Friends. Petitions from Sturge, the Society of Friends, various other humanitarian groups, and from citizens of entire cities were routinely sent to the Colonial Offices. In response to this pressure, the labour export was temporarily stopped in 1839 by the authorities when the scale of the abuses became known, but it was soon renewed due to its growing economic importance. A more rigorous regulatory framework was put into place and severe penalties were imposed for infractions in 1842. In that year, almost 35,000 people were shipped to Mauritius.
In 1844, the trade was expanded to the colonies in the West Indies, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Demerara, where the Asian population was soon a major component of the island demographic.
Starting in 1879, many Indians were transported to Fiji to work on the sugar cane plantations. Many of them chose to stay after their term of indenture elapsed and today they number about 40% of the total population. Indian workers were also imported into the Dutch colony of Suriname after the Dutch signed a treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers in 1870. In Mauritius, the Indian population are now demographically dominant, with Indian festivals being celebrated as national holidays.
This system prevailed until the early twentieth century. Increasing focus on the brutalities and abuses of the trade by the sensationalist media of the time, incited public outrage and lead to the official ending of the coolie trade in 1916 by the British government. By that time tens of thousands of Chinese workers were being used along the Western Front by the allied forces (see Chinese Labour Corps).
Modern use
- In Indonesian, kuli is now a term for construction workers, and is mostly no longer considered an offensive word but for some people this word becomes very offensive because most Indonesians use this word to denigrate Javanese descent (formerly most Javanese people became coolies when they sailed to Suriname)
- In Malaysia, kuli is a term for manual labourers, with somewhat negative connotations.
- In Thai, kuli (กุลี) still retains its original meaning as manual labourers, but is considered to be offensive. In September 2005 Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand used this term when referring to the labourers who built the new international airport. He thanked them for their hard work. Reuters, a news source from Bangkok, reported of Thai labour groups angered by his use of the term.
- In South Africa, the term coolie referred to indentured workers from India. It is no longer an accepted term and it, and its Zulu version, amakhula, is considered an extremely derogatory term for people of Indian descent.
- The word qūlī is now commonly used in Hindi to refer to luggage porters at hotel lobbies and railway and bus stations. Nevertheless, the use of such (especially by foreigners) may still be regarded as a slur by some.
- In Ethiopia, cooli are those who carry heavy loads for someone. The word is not used as a slur however. The term used to refer to Arab day-laborers who migrated to Ethiopia for labour work.
- The Dutch word koelie refers to a worker who performs very hard, exacting labour. The word generally has no particular ethnic connotations among the Dutch, but it is a racial slur amongst Surinamese of Indian heritage.
- Among overseas Vietnamese, coolie ("cu li" in Vietnamese) means a labourer, but in recent times the word has gained a second meaning a person who works a part-time job.
- In Finland, when freshmen of a technical university take care of student union club tasks (usually arranging a party or such activity), they are referred as "kuli" or performing a "kuli duty".
- In Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Jamaica, Belize, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Barbados, the rest of the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius, and South Africa, coolie is used loosely to refer to anyone of South Asian descent. It is used in a racially derogatory context by non-Indians towards Indians in these countries.
- In many English-speaking countries, the conical Asian hat worn by many Asians to protect themselves from the sun is called a "coolie hat".
- In the information technology industry, offshore workers are sometimes referred to as 'coolies' because of their lower wages.
- The term "coolie" appears in the Eddy Howard song, "The Rickety Rickshaw Man".
- In Hungarian, "kulimunka", literally "coolie work", refers to back-breaking, repetitive work.
- In India, the term is often used to refer to a porter paid to carry passengers' bags at railway stations.
- In Sri Lanka (sinhala), "kuliwada" is the term for manual labor. Also 'kuli' (e.g. Kuliyata) means working for a fee, notably instant (cash) payment (and not salaried). It is used in a derogatory/in-jest manner to signify biased action/support (e.g. Kuliyata andanawa = Crying for a fee [in colonial times people would be paid to cry at funerals]). Taxis are known as kuli-ratha.
- In Filipino, makuli translates to "industrious", which carries connotations of slavishness.
- In Greek, κούλης is used as a neutral word to mean "ship worker of Asian origin" by the Greek poet Nikos Kavvadias.
See also
In Spanish: Culí para niños
