The Coolie Trade

Question 1

What is chattel slavery?

Answer 1

A different word for the African slave trade

Question 2

When did the African slave trade end in the British empire?

Answer 2

It ended in 1833

Question 3

When was the Coolie trade?

Answer 3

1830 - 20th century

Question 4

When did the U.S ban coolie trade?

Answer 4

1862 during civil war

Question 5

What law was passed in 1875?

Answer 5

Anti-prostitution law against Chinese women

Question 6

What law was passed in 1882?

Answer 6

Chinese Exclusion Act

Question 7

What are some effects of bonded labour according to Tapper & Lindner?

Answer 7

Creolization, négritude and hybridity

Question 8

Who were the Coolies?

Answer 8

Asian migrant workers, mainly from China & India, sharing much of the fate of indentured workers and chattel slaves

Question 9

What was the result of abolition of black slavery?

Answer 9

The coolie trade reached its peak as a replacement for chattel slavery

Question 10

What were the state supposed to regulate to allow west indian planters to hire coolies?

Answer 10

They were supposed to regulate all phases of recruitment, transportation and employment

Question 11

What could happen to liberated black slaves?

Answer 11

They could be forced into indentured servitude

Question 12

What were some of the reports of coolie in the west indies?

Answer 12

They were hardly decently clothed and suffered severe sickness. Many complained & ran away. They thought they were slaves and even the black pitied them

Question 13

What was the Chinese imperial courts opinion of the Coolie trade?

Answer 13

They disliked it as there were outrage in southern China against kidnapping & deception which lead to the court requesting assistance from western diplomats to supress the trade

Question 14

What did the west inidan planters desire and what did London desire?

Answer 14

West Indians planters: demands cheap labour in the colonies

London: demands a legalized and regulated system if migration to protect its international image

Question 15

Why did pro-slavery southern Americans defend slavery and defy the Coolie trade?

Answer 15

They argued that the economic failings of emancipation and coolieism confirmed the natural order of slavery

Question 16

Where was the Coolie trade at its worst according to reports?

Answer 16

Cuba

Question 17

What did American diplomats think of the coolie trade?

Answer 17

They denounced it and wished to ban it. The anti-coolie act was passed in 1862

Question 18

How where the Coolie officially protected by the government?

Answer 18

They had wages, contracts etc.

Question 19

What did the media think of the coolie trade?

Answer 19

They disliked it, thought that the government were hypocrits for only baring about chattel slavery

Question 20

How was the viewpoint of the coolie trade changed over time?

Answer 20

It was first seen as free, but with the civil war coming it was seen as an equivalent to chattel slavery

Question 21

What were coolies treated in Cuba?

Answer 21

Euqal to African slaves. They were stripped naked for inspection, whipped and had bones brokened

Question 22

What did the contracts for coolies include?

Answer 22

Payment, duration of work and food

Question 23

What is unfree recruitment?

Answer 23

Coercieve as well as deceptive recruitment

Question 24

Is the coolie trade coerced or free?

Answer 24

The boundary between coerced and free is blurry for coolies

Question 25

Which nations were involved in the coolie trade?

Answer 25

British, Americans, French, Spanish & Portuguese

Question 26

What was often involved in the “voluntary negotiation process”?

Answer 26

Kidnapping, decay and fraud

Question 27

How were the vessels the coolie travelled on?

Answer 27

Cramped and inhumane resulting in sickness, misery and death. Much like the vessels for African slaves

Question 28

What happened socially were the Coolies ended up?

Answer 28

They formed temporary communities. They also triggered a process of creolization

Question 29

What has the explotation of labour always taken advantage of?

Answer 29

Global inequalities

Question 30

What was the experiences for coolies in the middle east?

Answer 30

Some were able to save substantial sums during their stay, while others, low-income asians, often ended up in debt-bondage

Question 31

How many indentured workers were destined for, or transited through, Mauritius?

Answer 31

About half a million were most were from India

Question 32

Explain Michael Zeuske’s idea of historical continuity of slavery

Answer 32

Abolition appears only as a minor hiatus in a long history of labor exploitation. Capitalism leads to global inequality which leads to labor exploitation

Question 33

What contributes to massive - alleged “voluntary” - labor migration?

Answer 33

Poverty, the desire for modernity, false promises and the indebtness

Question 34

Who wrote “Outlawing coolies” and what’s it about?

Answer 34

Moon-Ho Jung: it’s about the life of “coolies” and the changes made over time

Question 35

Who wrote “Introduction: global variants of bonded labour” and what’s it about?

Answer 35

Oliver Tappe & Ulrike Lindner: it’s about the “coolie” trade