The Coolie Trade

Journal of Chinese Overseas, May 2009, Book Review by Professor LI ANSHAN,
School of International Studies, Peking University

As China returns to the center of the world arena, Chinese studies have become a hot topic in academia. This “China frenzy” explains why, after more than 30 years, a Ph D dissertation on Chinese indentured labor completed in 1975 has “come out of the closet.”
Dr. Arnold J. Meagher’s work, The Coolie Trade, The Traffic in Chinese Laborers to Latin America 1847-1874, is a masterpiece, which tries “to present a comprehensive study of Chinese indentured labor in Latin America”.
The work is solid in its data. The author tries every means to use as much material from different sources as possible. The data including government archives and various secondary sources are taken from both the origin and destination of the traffic. Moreover, the appendices include a reservoir of documents for the researcher and historian interested in the subject. The work is also comprehensive in its content. It deals with not only the historical international context, the recruitment of Chinese labor in the Chinese coastal regions and the ports of departure, and the voyages to the New World, but also with the mutinies which took place in the course of the voyages, and the life of Chinese indentured laborers in Latin America. What is more, the author devotes one chapter to studying world opinions on the subject and the termination of the “coolie trade.”
The author of this work objectively studies the process, mechanism and results of the coolie trade, and on the other hand, severely criticizes this abominable commerce in human life, initiated and sustained by persuasion, deceit and coercion. He fully sympathizes with the Chinese indentured laborers who suffered from exploitation and oppression and were kept in “varying degrees of dehumanizing bondage”. He offers a unique viewpoint on the nature of the Chinese indentured labor system: It is important to distinguish between the abstract legal system of indenture embodied in government decrees and written contracts, and the actual day-to-day life of the indentured worker. The book concludes that the indenture system should fall under the expanded definition of slavery adopted by the United Nations in the Supplementary Convention on Slavery at Geneva in 1956 (pp. 298-99).

One need only pick-up a recent issue of The Economist to understand how strikingly relevant this book, adopted from a thesis written by Dr. Arnold J. Meagher in the mid-1970s, remains today. In the article, Drawing Lines in a Dark Place (August 16th, 2008), The Economist paints a picture of the still lingering trade in people-trafficking and illegal immigration, including the evils of bonded labor on the plantations of Brazil - and that's today.

Dr. Meagher's The Coolie Trade, explores the evils of the traffic of Chinese labors between 1847 and 1874, a period when England (and, later, other countries, including the United States) outlawed the international slave trade. To fill the unquenchable thirst for cheap labor in South America and the Caribbean, a trade in contract labor, or indentured servitude, sprang up in the footsteps of trade lanes first developed in support of the opium trade. Soon, ports at Amoy, Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Macau and others, sprang up to fill this trade. Nothing more than havens for pirates and drug smugglers, and overseen by corrupt officials in league with labor contracting "agents", these ports were quickly filled with the most sordid types of society, tricking, fooling and ultimately kidnapping thousands of unsuspecting Chinese men (and very few woman) into overseas labor contracts from which most never returned or lived to fulfill.

Meagher explores the origins of this trade, describes the unique aspects of Chinese culture that suppressed legal immigration and how, through tremendous demand analogous to today's drug trade, huge profits fueled cousins, brothers, and even fathers, to sell-out their kin to early deaths at the whips of South American and Caribbean plantation owners.

Heavily footnoted and with appendices filled with records not seen in years, including indentured labor contracts in both the original Chinese and English translation, Meagher's book is no dry, academic tome. A good read, the text flows from the early development of the trade, to the methods in which Chinese labor was recruited (or, more commonly, apprehended), to the horrors of what is the Pacific-equivalent of the "middle crossing". Those Chinese laborers who survived the trip to the Southern Hemisphere entered a truly New World, where the economics and culture of the time demanded cheap, subservient labor. Meagher describes the deadly work performed, the fates these souls faced, and the conditions they struggled through, such as those in the giant Guano fields of the Chincha Islands, or, like that which persists to this very day, the plantations of Brazil.

Illustrated with maps, tables, figures and quite a few amazing photographs, the material for this book was gathered from an international host of sources, including national archives and libraries in London, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Macau and other sources. Anyone with an ounce of interest in the history and origin of the evil alternatives to slave labor should read and will appreciate this book.

Despite the generations gone since both the African Slave and Chinese Coolie trades have ended, it's a wonder we face the same evils today. It is most unfortunate that Dr. Meagher's book shines light not on a brief, historic period illustrative of the evils of man, but, rather, a continuing saga of human exploitation that remains both relevant, and real, today.

I highly recommend this book.

Javier Benavente
Clearwater, Florida

One need only pick-up a recent issue of The Economist to understand how strikingly relevant this book, adopted from a thesis written by Dr. Arnold J. Meagher in the mid-1970s, remains today. In the article, Drawing Lines in a Dark Place (August 16th, 2008), The Economist paints a picture of the still lingering trade in people-trafficking and illegal immigration, including the evils of bonded labor on the plantations of Brazil - and that's today.

Dr. Meagher's The Coolie Trade, explores the evils of the traffic of Chinese labors between 1847 and 1874, a period when England (and, later, other countries, including the United States) outlawed the international slave trade. To fill the unquenchable thirst for cheap labor in South America and the Caribbean, a trade in contract labor, or indentured servitude, sprang up in the footsteps of trade lanes first developed in support of the opium trade. Soon, ports at Amoy, Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Macau and others, sprang up to fill this trade. Nothing more than havens for pirates and drug smugglers, and overseen by corrupt officials in league with labor contracting "agents", these ports were quickly filled with the most sordid types of society, tricking, fooling and ultimately kidnapping thousands of unsuspecting Chinese men (and very few woman) into overseas labor contracts from which most never returned or lived to fulfill.

Meagher explores the origins of this trade, describes the unique aspects of Chinese culture that suppressed legal immigration and how, through tremendous demand analogous to today's drug trade, huge profits fueled cousins, brothers, and even fathers, to sell-out their kin to early deaths at the whips of South American and Caribbean plantation owners.

Heavily footnoted and with appendices filled with records not seen in years, including indentured labor contracts in both the original Chinese and English translation, Meagher's book is no dry, academic tome. A good read, the text flows from the early development of the trade, to the methods in which Chinese labor was recruited (or, more commonly, apprehended), to the horrors of what is the Pacific-equivalent of the "middle crossing". Those Chinese laborers who survived the trip to the Southern Hemisphere entered a truly New World, where the economics and culture of the time demanded cheap, subservient labor. Meagher describes the deadly work performed, the fates these souls faced, and the conditions they struggled through, such as those in the giant Guano fields of the Chincha Islands, or, like that which persists to this very day, the plantations of Brazil.

Illustrated with maps, tables, figures and quite a few amazing photographs, the material for this book was gathered from an international host of sources, including national archives and libraries in London, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Macau and other sources. Anyone with an ounce of interest in the history and origin of the evil alternatives to slave labor should read and will appreciate this book.

Despite the generations gone since both the African Slave and Chinese Coolie trades have ended, it's a wonder we face the same evils today. It is most unfortunate that Dr. Meagher's book shines light not on a brief, historic period illustrative of the evils of man, but, rather, a continuing saga of human exploitation that remains both relevant, and real, today.

I highly recommend this book.

Javier Benavente
Clearwater, Florida

One need only pick-up a recent issue of The Economist to understand how strikingly relevant this book, adopted from a thesis written by Dr. Arnold J. Meagher in the mid-1970s, remains today. In the article, Drawing Lines in a Dark Place (August 16th, 2008), The Economist paints a picture of the still lingering trade in people-trafficking and illegal immigration, including the evils of bonded labor on the plantations of Brazil - and that's today.

Dr. Meagher's The Coolie Trade, explores the evils of the traffic of Chinese labors between 1847 and 1874, a period when England (and, later, other countries, including the United States) outlawed the international slave trade. To fill the unquenchable thirst for cheap labor in South America and the Caribbean, a trade in contract labor, or indentured servitude, sprang up in the footsteps of trade lanes first developed in support of the opium trade. Soon, ports at Amoy, Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Macau and others, sprang up to fill this trade. Nothing more than havens for pirates and drug smugglers, and overseen by corrupt officials in league with labor contracting "agents", these ports were quickly filled with the most sordid types of society, tricking, fooling and ultimately kidnapping thousands of unsuspecting Chinese men (and very few woman) into overseas labor contracts from which most never returned or lived to fulfill.

Meagher explores the origins of this trade, describes the unique aspects of Chinese culture that suppressed legal immigration and how, through tremendous demand analogous to today's drug trade, huge profits fueled cousins, brothers, and even fathers, to sell-out their kin to early deaths at the whips of South American and Caribbean plantation owners.

Heavily footnoted and with appendices filled with records not seen in years, including indentured labor contracts in both the original Chinese and English translation, Meagher's book is no dry, academic tome. A good read, the text flows from the early development of the trade, to the methods in which Chinese labor was recruited (or, more commonly, apprehended), to the horrors of what is the Pacific-equivalent of the "middle crossing". Those Chinese laborers who survived the trip to the Southern Hemisphere entered a truly New World, where the economics and culture of the time demanded cheap, subservient labor. Meagher describes the deadly work performed, the fates these souls faced, and the conditions they struggled through, such as those in the giant Guano fields of the Chincha Islands, or, like that which persists to this very day, the plantations of Brazil.

Illustrated with maps, tables, figures and quite a few amazing photographs, the material for this book was gathered from an international host of sources, including national archives and libraries in London, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Macau and other sources. Anyone with an ounce of interest in the history and origin of the evil alternatives to slave labor should read and will appreciate this book.

Despite the generations gone since both the African Slave and Chinese Coolie trades have ended, it's a wonder we face the same evils today. It is most unfortunate that Dr. Meagher's book shines light not on a brief, historic period illustrative of the evils of man, but, rather, a continuing saga of human exploitation that remains both relevant, and real, today.

I highly recommend this book.

Javier Benavente
Clearwater, Florida

One need only pick-up a recent issue of The Economist to understand how strikingly relevant this book, adopted from a thesis written by Dr. Arnold J. Meagher in the mid-1970s, remains today. In the article, Drawing Lines in a Dark Place (August 16th, 2008), The Economist paints a picture of the still lingering trade in people-trafficking and illegal immigration, including the evils of bonded labor on the plantations of Brazil - and that's today.

Dr. Meagher's The Coolie Trade, explores the evils of the traffic of Chinese labors between 1847 and 1874, a period when England (and, later, other countries, including the United States) outlawed the international slave trade. To fill the unquenchable thirst for cheap labor in South America and the Caribbean, a trade in contract labor, or indentured servitude, sprang up in the footsteps of trade lanes first developed in support of the opium trade. Soon, ports at Amoy, Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Macau and others, sprang up to fill this trade. Nothing more than havens for pirates and drug smugglers, and overseen by corrupt officials in league with labor contracting "agents", these ports were quickly filled with the most sordid types of society, tricking, fooling and ultimately kidnapping thousands of unsuspecting Chinese men (and very few woman) into overseas labor contracts from which most never returned or lived to fulfill.

Meagher explores the origins of this trade, describes the unique aspects of Chinese culture that suppressed legal immigration and how, through tremendous demand analogous to today's drug trade, huge profits fueled cousins, brothers, and even fathers, to sell-out their kin to early deaths at the whips of South American and Caribbean plantation owners.

Heavily footnoted and with appendices filled with records not seen in years, including indentured labor contracts in both the original Chinese and English translation, Meagher's book is no dry, academic tome. A good read, the text flows from the early development of the trade, to the methods in which Chinese labor was recruited (or, more commonly, apprehended), to the horrors of what is the Pacific-equivalent of the "middle crossing". Those Chinese laborers who survived the trip to the Southern Hemisphere entered a truly New World, where the economics and culture of the time demanded cheap, subservient labor. Meagher describes the deadly work performed, the fates these souls faced, and the conditions they struggled through, such as those in the giant Guano fields of the Chincha Islands, or, like that which persists to this very day, the plantations of Brazil.

Illustrated with maps, tables, figures and quite a few amazing photographs, the material for this book was gathered from an international host of sources, including national archives and libraries in London, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Macau and other sources. Anyone with an ounce of interest in the history and origin of the evil alternatives to slave labor should read and will appreciate this book.

Despite the generations gone since both the African Slave and Chinese Coolie trades have ended, it's a wonder we face the same evils today. It is most unfortunate that Dr. Meagher's book shines light not on a brief, historic period illustrative of the evils of man, but, rather, a continuing saga of human exploitation that remains both relevant, and real, today.

I highly recommend this book.

Javier Benavente
Clearwater, Florida

Against the backdrop of China’s rapid advance to the forefront of the world economy and sharp scrutiny over global trends in human trafficking, Meagher’s exhaustive survey of Chinese indentured labor is a richly informative, timely release. His volume, much broader in scope than the Latin America in his subtitle indicates, is a careful examination of cultural, political and socioeconomic factors that contributed to this phenomenon. Meagher argues that the termination of the African slave trade, an urgent need for laborers in the West and a deteriorating Chinese economy conspired to spawn the emigration of more than a quarter million Chinese laborers to Latin America in the span of 28 years. Beginning in 1847, Chinese emigration quickly evolved into a prosperous black market cottage industry that, alongside the illicit opium trade, attracted enterprising, often dubious characters. These overlords relentlessly plundered China’s human resources to satisfy a labor vacuum in the West. Scheming brokers often used any means available—false promises, deceit and fraud—to lure prey aboard ships. Victims of kidnapping account for more than a quarter of the human cargo, while appalling prison-like conditions, mutinies and disease resulted in a 12 percent mortality rate during the nine-month voyage. Great Britain and the United States abandoned the coolie trade in the mid 1860s after much public outcry. Trafficking, however, continued to flourish until 1874 aboard other ships sailing for Latin America, often destined for Cuba and Peru, where booming sugar, guano and mining industries demanded a steady flow of fresh workers. This authoritative account is acutely critical of the coolie trade as a means by which the slave trade continued in the West, but suggests it did have its advantages: challenging draconian Chinese taboos that once forbade emigration and introducing Chinese culture to Western society.
The author’s fluid, conversational style elevates Meagher’s work from the weight that often bogs down other academic texts.
Engaging and topical fare.