Abolition, Chinese Indentured Labor, and the State: Cuba, Peru, and the United States during the Mid Nineteenth Century. Issue 1 (8th February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Narváez, Benjamin N.
• Is Part Of: Americas. Volume 76:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 5
• Page End: 40
• Publication Date: 2019-02-08
• Subjects: America -- History -- Periodicals; Latin America -- History -- Periodicals; United States -- Relations -- Latin America -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Relations -- United States -- Periodicals; AMERICA LATINA -- HISTORIA -- PUBLICACIONES PERIODICAS; ESTADOS UNIDOS -- RELACIONES EXTERIORES -- AMERICA LATINA -- PUBLICACIONES PERIODICAS; AMERICA LATINA -- RELACIONES -- ESTADOS UNIDOS -- PUBLICACIONES PERIODICAS; Electronic journals; 970.05
• DOI: 10.1017/tam.2018.43
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-1615

Abstract

Abstract : Abolition forced planters in the post-Civil War US South to consider new sources and forms of labor. Some looked to Spanish America for answers. Cuba had long played a prominent role in the American imagination because of its proximity, geostrategic location, and potential as a slave state prior to the Civil War. Even as the United States embraced abolition and Cuba maintained slavery, the island presented Southern planters with potential labor solutions. Cuban elites had been using male Chinese indentured workers ("coolies" or colonos asiáticos ) to supplement slave labor and delay the rise of free labor since 1847. Planters in coastal Peru similarly embraced Chinese indentured labor in 1849 as abolition neared. Before the Civil War, Southerners generally had noted these developments with anxiety, fearing that coolies were morally corrupt and detrimental to slavery. However, for many, these concerns receded once legal slavery ended. Planters wanted cheap exploitable labor, which coolies appeared to offer. Thus, during Reconstruction, Southern elites, especially in Louisiana, attempted to use Chinese indentured workers to minimize changes in labor relations.