Coolie - Definition and Overview

Coolie refers to unskilled laborers from Asia of the 1800s to early 1900s who were sent to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, North Africa and the West Indies. The term usually referred to Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Korean laborers and was often used in a derogatory way. The word is derived from the Chinese term 苦力, ku li, literally meaning "suffering strength", describing the brutal physical labor they did.

In the British Empire the term coolie referred to a form of indentured servitude with conditions resembling slavery. In India and Africa Mahatma Gandhi led a campaign against such indentured laboring.

Chinese coolies contributed to the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, but many of the Chinese laborers were not welcome to stay after its completion. California's Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 and Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 also contributed to the unfriendliness to Chinese laborers in the United States.

In India, the word coolie refers to porters who work at railway stations.

See also:

• Overseas Chinese
• History of Chinese immigration to Canada
• Immigration to the United States

External links

• Hill Coolies (http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/scoble/index.html)
• BBC documentary: Coolies: The Story of Indian Slavery (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/coolies.shtml)