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The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than 1.6 million workers [1] from British India were transported to labour in European colonies, as a substitute for slave labour, following the abolition of the trade in the early 19th century.
Indentured Chinese servants also laboured in the sugarcane fields of Cuba well after the 1884 abolition of slavery in the country. Two scholars of Chinese labour in Cuba, Juan Pastrana and Juan Pérez de la Riva, substantiated horrific conditions of Chinese coolies in Cuba [58] and stated that coolies were slaves in all but name. [58]
Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were frequently subject to physical punishment, and did not receive legal favor from the courts. Female indentured servants in particular might be raped and/or sexually abused by their masters. If children were produced the labour would be extended by two years. [14]
The word coolie, which was used in the Atlantic World to refer to primarily Indian and Chinese indentured workers from Asia, is considered a pejorative. [3] [7] Bahadur chose the title to acknowledge the stigma [5] but also as a metaphor for the baggage women carried as a result of colonialism. [3]
The first numbers of Chinese arrived in British Guiana in 1853, forming an important minority of the indentured workforce. After their indenture, many who stayed on in Guyana came to be known as successful retailers, with considerable integration with the local culture.
The first indentured servants arose centuries ago out of necessity and desperation on both sides of the Atlantic. An unskilled laborer from pre-industrial England might need to save up multiple ...
South Asians had been present in colonial America since at least 1635 with the recording of an East Indian man named "Tony" in the Colony of Virginia. They were brought over as indentured servants and sometimes slaves who eventually assimilated into the dominant white and black American populations. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Between 1853 and 1879, 14,000 Chinese indentured servants were imported to the British Caribbean as part of a larger system of low-wage labor bound for the sugar plantations. Imported as a low-wage labor force from China, Chinese settled in three main locations: Jamaica , Trinidad , and British Guiana (now Guyana ), initially working on the ...