From Slavery to Freedom: Chinese Coolies on the Sugar Plantations of Nineteenth Century Cuba

Abstract

To supplement a dwindling slave labour force on their sugar plantations, Cuban planters turned to south China's Fujian and especially Guangdong provinces. From 1847 to 1874 they recruited 141,000 male labourers (125,000 of whom arrived in Cuba alive). Slave-like work and living conditions on plantations, with proximity to large numbers of slaves notwithstanding, Chinese coolies were not permanent or lifelong slaves. The main question asked is not whether Chinese coolies were slaves - a well-worn argument that is not re-hashed here - but whether as contract labourers they constituted the early stages of the transition from slave to free labour. The article examines the respective and divergent framing of the bilingual Spanish and Chinese contracts, and the series of regulations designed to control the Chinese workers. Based largely on these primary documents it follows the trajectory of their work history in Cuba from indenture to freedom by way of specific life experiences.