Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
1750 - 1900
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
African Slaves (1750 – 1900)
• By 1750, slavery was a legal institution in all 13 North American Colonies
• An estimated 12 million African Slaves were sold in the Americas
between the 16th and 18th Centuries
• The African slave trade reached it’s height in the late 18th Century
with the expansion of the Oyo (Yoruba) and Ashanti Empires
• By the Industrial Revolution only 5% of Britain’s economy was
still based on the African Slave Trade
• In 1807, Britain passed an act abolishing the African Slave Trade
• In 1833, Britain passed the Slavery Abolition Act, making slavery
illegal throughout the whole British Empire
• In 1834, the British Emancipation Act freed all former slaves in
the British Colonies
• In 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation proclamation
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Coolies (1750 – 1900)
• Within a decade after the British abolished slavery in 1834,
the remaining European powers also outlawed the practice
• Intensive colonial labor on plantations, railways, and mines
required cheap manpower
• The over-populated regions of India and China offered the
perfect source for the needed laborers
• New term originated from the Hindu word Kuli, meaning
“day-laborer”
• First used in 1727 to describe dock laborers unloading a
Dutch merchant ship in Nagasaki, Japan
• Eventually the term was used to describe coerced laborers
from both India and China
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Indian Coolies (1750 – 1900)
• Indian Coolies (Kuli) were first used as
porters and day laborers by the British
East India Company in South Asia
• In 1834, the first emigration of coolies
from India to Mauritius was recorded
by the British East India Company
• In 1837, the Government of India passed
the Emigration Law to try and regulate
coolies being transported out of India
• By 1838, over 25,000 Indian coolies had
been transported from India to Mauritius
• By 1842, formal regulations concerning
the coolie trade were established
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Indian Coolies (1750 – 1900)
• In 1844, coolie emigration to the British
West Indies (Jamaica) was sanctioned by
the government in India
• Initially coolies were obligated to 5 years
of labor
• In 1853, the period of obligated service
was extended to 10 years for each coolie
• By 1900, six countries had more than
10,000 people of Indian origin as laborers
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British Guiana
Trinidad & Tobago
Mauritius
Natal (South Africa)
Jamaica
Fiji
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Indian Coolies (1750 – 1900)
Treatment of Coolies
• Subjected to an examination by both the
immigration agent and officer of health
• Those found fit for labor were assigned to
a plantation or mine
• Family life was respected and children
under 15 were kept with their parents
• After completing their required years of
servitude, they could return home or
re-contract for a similar term of service
• Certificates of exemption were issued to
coolies who satisfactorily completed their
required period of servitude
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Chinese Coolies in the U.S. (1850 – 1900)
• Prior to the California Gold Rush
of the 1850’s, Chinese laborers
had been brought into the state
in minimal numbers
• In 1852, over 20,000 Chinese
laborers emigrated to California
(Compared to 2,716 in 1851)
• The derogatory term “coolie” was
fueled by race riots in California
• Between 1853 – 1854 a recession
caused a greater influx of Chinese
coolies
• White workers created anti-coolie
clubs to spread their racist views
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Chinese Coolies in the U.S. (1850 – 1900)
• By 1858, Chinese coolies were being hired
in increasing numbers because they worked
for ½ the cost of white laborers
• In 1862, the Anti-Coolie Act was passed in
California, which taxed all Chinese $2.50 a
month to work in the state (most Chinese
only made $3.00 - $4.00 a month)
• Between 1863 – 1869, the First TransContinental Railroad was built, increasing the
need for cheap labor (many were Chinese)
• In 1868, the U.S. Government passed the
Burlingame-Seward Treaty, which recognized
China’s sovereignty and encouraged Chinese
immigration to the United States
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Chinese Coolies in the U.S. (1850 – 1900)
• Between 1850 – 1875, Chinese involvement
in gambling, opium trade, and prostitution
were of great concern in the United States
• Chinese prostitutes were usually women
who had been kidnapped, purchased from
poor families, or lured to the U.S. with the
promise of marriage to wealthy miners
• Chinese Triads (like the Tong) have been linked to the
spread of criminal activities in the Chinese populated
areas of many U.S. cities (Chinatowns)
• In 1875, Congress passed the Page Act, which prohibited
the entry into the U.S. by any immigrants who were
considered “undesirable”
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Chinese Coolies in the U.S. (1850 – 1900)
• By 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act
was passed, which placed a ten year
ban on Chinese immigration into the
U.S. (without certification)
• Law caused the first great wave of
commercial human smuggling into
the United States
• Chinese who left the U.S. were
forbidden to return by both the Chinese
and U.S. governments
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Chinese & Pacific Island Coolies in Australia (1850 – 1900)
• Discovery of Gold in Australia in 1851
led to a great influx of migrant miners
from all over the world
• Over 40,000 Chinese laborers came
to the gold fields of Australia between
1851 – 1901
• Anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia
resulted in the Buckland Riot (1857)
and the Lambing Flat Riots (1860-61)
• In the 1870’s, thousands of “Kanakas”
(Pacific Islanders) were brought in as
indentured laborers to work the sugar
plantations in Australia
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Chinese & Pacific Island Coolies in Australia (1850 – 1900)
• The practice of bringing in Kanakas by
trickery or kidnapping became known
as “Blackbirding”
• Between the 1870’s and 1880’s, white
trade unions in Australia began protests
against the use of Chinese and Asian
laborers
• In 1897, the Natal Act was passed to
restrict “undesirables” (mainly Asians)
from entering Australia
• In 1901, Australia’s Parliament passed
the Immigration Restriction Act to limit
future immigrants from entering and
allowing the deportation of illegal aliens
or “undesirables”
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Convict Laborers (1750 – 1900)
• Both Britain and France used their North
American colonies to send convicted
criminals to perform indentured servitude
(British Georgia and French Louisiana)
• After the American Revolution, Britain began
using parts of Australia, New Zealand, and
the island of Bermuda
• France created penal colonies in French
Guiana (South America) and New Caledonia
(Southwestern Pacific)
• Penal colonies were used as locations for
both criminals and political prisoners; sent to
serve out life sentences at forced labor
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Convict Laborers in the British Empire (1800 – 1900)
• Beginning in 1810, Convicts were seen as
a source of labor to advance and develop
the British Empire
• Convict labor was used to develop the
infrastructure of each British Penal Colony
by building roads, tunnels, bridges, courthouses and hospitals
• The discipline of labor in desolate or rural
locations was considered the best way to
reform convicts
• By 1821, the majority of a penal colonies
population were convicts or freed prisoners
who chose to remain in the colony
• By the 1830’s, only 6% of all prisoners were
actually locked up
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Convict Laborers in the British Empire (1800 – 1900)
Treatment of Convicts
• Convicts sometimes shared deplorable
conditions
 “We have to work from 14-18 hours a day,
sometimes up to our knees in cold water, 'til we
are ready to sink with fatigue...”
 “This inhumane driver struck John Smith
with a bullwhip or a stick everyday because he
felt the Man wasn’t working hard enough.”
 “... working together in the otherwise solitary
bush; habits of mutual helpfulness arise, and
these elicit gratitude, and that leads on to
regard. Men under these circumstances often
stand by one another through thick and thin; in
fact it is a universal feeling that a man ought to
be able to trust his own mate in anything.”
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Convict Laborers in the British Empire (1800 – 1900)
Conditions for Convicts
• Harsh environment in which convicts and
settlers found themselves meant that men
& women closely relied on each other
• In Australia, a 'mate' is more than just a
friend. It's a term that implies a sense of
shared experience, mutual respect and
unconditional assistance.
• Some convicts were able to receive “Tickets
to Leave” for good behavior, which were
certificates of freedom or official pardons
• By 1868, 162,000 men and women convicts
of Irish, Scottish and Welsh decent had
been sent to Australia
Francis Greenway
Laurence Halloran
(Convict & Architect) (Convict & Teacher)
Simon Lord
(Convict,
Merchant &
Magistrate)
Coerced and Semi-Coerced Labor Systems
Convict Laborers in the French Empire (1850 – 1900)
Devil’s Island (French Guiana)
• In 1852, Devil’s Island was established as a
penal colony in French Guiana
• Inmates were both political prisoners and
criminals convicted of theft and murder
• Over 80,000 men were sent to Devil’s Island
• In 1854, a new law required convicts to remain
in French Guiana for a time equal to their
sentence of forced labor after their release
• Due to the islands location and the disease
infested conditions, very few convicts ever
survived to leave the colony