| Description |
Many people are relatively unaware of the hundreds of thousands of indentured workers from China and India, known as coolies, that labored in the British West Indies during and after the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade between 1834 and 1918. While some scholars have acknowledged the presence of these foreign contract laborers, few have closely studied their acts of resistance during this time period. Consequently, this project seeks to better understand coolie labor experiences in the British West Indies amidst the decline of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and examine the ways in which coolies resisted their masters, related to other workers, and maintained their own identities amidst an oppressive plantation labor system. Through analyzing the daily methods of resistance that coolie laborers resorted to in plantation life, the illegal desertions of coolies, the conflicting relationships between coolie laborers and newly freed slave laborers, and the strategies that planters utilized in attempts to prevent effective coolie resistance, I find that while coolies faced several challenges in subverting the power of their employers, some found unique ways to maintain their autonomy and defy a coercive and deeply-rooted labor system. Despite these efforts, the ultimate decline of coolie labor in the British West Indies is best understood in the context of burgeoning anti-slavery attitudes and growing awareness of workers' rights at the dawn of the 20th century. |
