COOLIE, a term commonly applied to un skilled laborers from. India and China. The first coolie emigrants appear to have been In dians, brought from Calcutta, in India, to British Guiana, in 1839, soon after the aboli tion of slavery in that colony. As free negroes were found to be insufficient to perform the work that had previously been done by slave labor and the whites could not endure hard labor in a tropical climate, the planters had to look for recruits from other places than Africa. The Chinese coolie traffic was publicly recog nized in 1844 when the British colony of Guiana made provision for the encouragement of Chinese immigration. For a certain specified amount, generally about 17s a month, the coolies were bound for a term of years and after 10 years' service they were entitled to free passage back to their native country. The Chinese coolies were not entitled to this back passage. To entice the slcilled laborers to re main inducements were offered them, and many did remain. The coolies employed in Guiana, chiefly from India, were in 1891 in number 105,463. The first attempt to use people from India as laborers proved unsuccess ful. Various abuses existed almost from the beginning, in the treatment of the laborers. The transport ships were crowded so that few survived the passage; the survivors were often sold, and many were sent, contrary to their agreement, to work in the foul guano pits in Peru, where huge numbers penshed. The Chinese Passengers' Act of 1855 put an end to the more abonunable phases of the traffic. No British ship was allowed to sail on more than a week's voyage with more than 20 coolies on board, unless her master had complied with cer tain very stringent regulations. This ruling en abled the Portuguese to gain almost entire control of the trade. The abuses which had crept in made the trade almost as bad as the trade in African slaves. The legislature of Jamaica, in 1869, passed a law requiring more humane treatment from employers toward their coolies. Macao, the Portuguese port at the mouth of the Canton River, China, sent large numbers of Chinese coolies to Cuba and Peru and under conditions little short of absolute slavery, even kidnapping was practised with 'impunity. In 1866 the matter was made sub ject to an international conference and im provements were made by agreements signed by China, France and Great Britain. By this
agreement, the legalized coolie trade between the West Indies and China was abolished. In 1904, under a convention drawn up between China and the United Kingdom, over 50,000 Chinese laborers were engaged at work in the gold mines of Transvaal. To the Malay states and other parts of eastern Asia, there is an ex tensive yearly migration of Chinese coolies not under contract. From Amoy alone, some 75,000 coolies emigrate yearly to Singapore and The Straits Settlements, whence they are drafted for labor purposes in every direction.
The first recorded attempt at coolie trade with India took place in 1834, when coolies were transported to Mauritius. The trade grew enormously, and all sorts of abuses existed, which were finally stopped by the Indian Emi gration Act of 1883, under which contract is allowed to certain colonies only, where good treatment is assured, which includes provision for an agent residing in India under the super vision of the protector of emigrants; the in forming of the coolies of the exact nature of the agreement; medical inspection of emi grants and depots; inspection and licensing of ships, etc. The British colonies to which coolies are now admitted are British Guiana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Trinidad, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts, Saint Vincent, Grenada, Natal and Fiji; and also to the French Guadeloupe and Martinique as well as Dutch Guiana and the Danish Saint Croix. In 1900 there were 625,000 coolies in the British colonies. During the con struction of the Uganda Railway large numbers of coolies were recruited in die Punjab and exported from Karachi to Mombasa. A great number, after tie railroad was completed, set tled in East Africa. The tea estates and pearl fisheries of Ceylon and the harvesting in Burma attracted many laborers from Tamil.
The name is also applied to the Chinese immigrants to the United States, many of whom came to the western shore of this coun try after the discovery of gold in California. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1888 and the stringent laws against contract laborers have greatly limited the numbers of Chinese in this country. (See CHINESE I M MIGRATION ) . Con sult Hope, J. L. A., 'In Quest of Coolies> (1872); Jenlcins, E., 'The Coolie; His Rights and His Wrongs' (1871); Grose, C. B., 'The Labour Ordinances' (Georgetown 1890) and reports of the commissions.