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March 8, 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
Coolie

Wikipedia

 
Coolie refers to unskilled laborers from Asia of the 1800s to early 1900s who were sent to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, North Africa and the West Indies. The term usually referred to China|Chinese, Indian, Japanese person|Japanese and Koreans|Korean laborers and was often used in a derogatory way. The word is derived from the Chinese term 苦力, ku li, literally meaning "suffering strength", describing the brutal physical labor they did. (N.B.: most standard sources give Hindi quli = 'hired servant' as the source.)

In the British Empire the term coolie referred to a form of indentured servitude with conditions resembling slavery. In India and Africa, Mahatma Gandhi led a campaign against such indentured laboring.

Image:Newly arrived coolies in Trinidad.jpg|thumb|360px|Newly arrived Indian coolies in Trinidad

Chinese coolies contributed to the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad (North America)|Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, but many of the Chinese laborers were not welcome to stay after its completion. California's Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 and Chinese Exclusion Act (United States)|Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 also contributed to the unfriendliness to Chinese laborers in the United States.

In India, the word coolie refers to porter (carrying)|porters who work at railway stations. In Trinidad and Tobago it is considered an offensive term on par with "nigger".



  • Overseas Chinese

  • History of Chinese immigration to Canada

  • Immigration to the United States




  • http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/scoble/index.html Hill Coolies

  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/coolies.shtml BBC documentary: Coolies: The Story of Indian Slavery


Category:U.S. immigration history
category:Chinese American history
Category:Social groups
Category:Slavery

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Coolie".


Last Modified:   2005-04-13


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