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Abstract:
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This dissertation examines the experience of the tens of thousands of Chinese indentured laborers (colonos asiáticos or “coolies” ) who went to Cuba and Peru as replacements for African slaves during the middle of the nineteenth century . Despite major sociopolitical differences (i .e . , colonial slave society vs . independent republic without slavery ) , this comparative project reveals the common nature in the transition from slavery to free labor . Specifically , the indenture system , how the Chinese reacted to their situation , and how they influenced labor relations mirrored each other in the two societies . I contend that colonos asiáticos , while neither slaves nor free laborers , created a foundation for a shift from slavery to free labor . Elites in both places tried to fit the Chinese into competing projects of liberal “progress” and conservative efforts to stem this change , causing them to imagine these immigrant laborers in contradictory ways (i .e . , free vs . slave , white vs . non -white , hard -working vs . lazy , cultured vs . morally corrupt ) . This ambiguity excused treating Asian laborers as if they were slaves , but it also justified treating them as free people . Moreover , Chinese acts of resistance slowly helped undermine this labor regime . Eventually , international pressure , which never would have reached such heights if the Chinese had remained passive , forced an end to the “coolie” trade and left these two societies with little option but to move even closer to free labor .
That said , this work also considers the ways in which the differing socio -political contexts altered the Chinese experience . In particular , in contrast to Peru , Cuba’s status as a colonial slave society made it easier for the island’s elites to justify exploiting these workers and to protect themselves from mass rebellion . My dissertation places the histories of Cuba and Peru into a global perspective . It focuses on the transnational migration of the Chinese , on their social integration into their new Latin American host societies , as well as on the international reaction to the situation of immigrant laborers in Latin America . |