**4. Moral values in the hiring of Chinese coolies**

The mid-nineteenth century turns out to be a crucial period in the consolidation of freedom notions. On the same page, consider including in the historical analysis the most populated country in the world—nearly 430 million people in 1850—contribute to comprehending the links with the morality among global capitalist relations. Just at the beginning, hiring Chinese coolies to support economic activities in the Caribbean seems barely logical. Thus, it is vital to observe the rapid manner in which constructing notions of freedom attended those financial adversities. With a piece of naiveness, it is possible that neither landowners and dealers nor Chinese coolies knew the destiny of the hiring. All of them just signed the document guarantor of rational freedom. At the end of the 1850 decade, tensions between English, French, and Spanish arose the cloak of doubt about the free hiring of Chinese coolies. On the contrary, an idea of a new slavery acquired relevance, receiving more support from the American congress, which strongly condemned any form of coolies' contract. This terrible practice of new slavery would change with the intervention of the Chinese government, which sent a political commission to Cuba and Peru to recover Chinese statements about the humanitarian conditions of the immigrants working in the Caribbean and South America.32

This reflection of moral conceptions would offer more elements if considering the experiences inside China. For example, in 1860, Pek-Ito Leang, a helpless 18-yearsold woman from a small town (Tong Wha), received attention because of her public crucifixion. Furthermore, being still alive, she received part of Chinese torture, starting from the cut-off of her breast and her skin. The offenses attributed to Pek-Ito consisted of seducing, kidnapping, and selling 13 Chinese peasant men as coolies. Afterward,

<sup>29</sup> Letter signed by the Bishop Federico Escobar. Habana, 23 de Agosto de 1853. ANC. Reales órdenes y cédula. Legajo 190, exp. 207.

<sup>30</sup> *The Tralee Chronicle and Killarney Echo*, June 9, 1857.

<sup>31</sup> *The Leeds Mercury*, June 29, 1858.

<sup>32</sup> Young [21]; Young, *Alien nation*, 36.

she died and her family received her guts as a present.33 This cruel narration must tell us some ideas about global morality. Impress those tremendous actions to halt a social practice that acquired the conception of crime in recent years. Before, the Chinese coolie indenture system acted as a legitimate alternative to detaining African Slavery. Thus, it is very significant to comprehend and explain the nature of crime in the indenture system.

In the early 50s, Cuban sugar manufacturers' dilemma consisted of reducing sugar mill production costs that recently competed against new international producers. In addition, there was technological turmoil, threatening traditional forms of sugar production. The Cuban business people exposed arguments about its economic commitments, which motivated the hiring of the Asiatic labor force, although dividing the moral guilt of the contract with all the consumers. If there was a personal and cultural desire to consume sugar, the alternatives consisted of assuming economic decisions, all of them unpopular: first, raising the prices of the product, or replacing African slave work for Chinese coolie indenture, disguised by an idea of free labor, because the document is supporting and legalizing the recruitment.

*To those who are anxious to have cheap sugar –and we suppose all are, though some may not wish to have it through such sources as Brazil and the Havana, we say, support our West Indian colonies; prevent them sinking altogether, or you will no longer have cheap sugar.34*

*The plan is simply an offshoot of the old abolitionist measure of replacing negro slaves with Indian coolies, which has since relapsed into the present profitable practice of importing Chinese apprentices to the sugar-growing fields of the tropics. Senor Meana's plan is combined with great skill, and would effectually displace the slave trade on the coast of Africa if adopted.35*

In the mid-nineteenth century, the rise of liberalism invigorated the circulation of ideas related to freedom, most of them explained in the frame of philosophy, politics, and economy, implemented in a political intervention such as abolitionism and the belief in universal rational freedom. In this particular case, it is essential to analyze the place occupied by the Chinese coolies in front of liberalism policies, destinated to abolish slavery, mainly because of the strong opposition of the industrial sector in the United States, but also because of the popular insurrections in Europe, and the Cartism work policies. In the same sense, Cuban landowners adopted the obligation of contracting Chinese coolies as free workers, as is demonstrated in much documentation regarding social warranty in an industrial environment (**Figure 2**).

As it has demonstrated, freedom requires a certificated more than the conviction of being a free subject. During the 50s, a global system emerged based on free people's interchange, migration, and contracting. As might be obvious, using a contract does not warrant any proximity with freedom, but the system demanded a paper to support the legal submission. In reality, this legal form fulfilled some of the British and Spanish implementations destinated to halt piracy. Also, that kind of Freedom executed a liberal principle of rational choice, once again supported by a contract. The dealers interpreted all those facts in a particular way and overloaded the ships with Chinese coolies based on the legal documentation. In any case, overcrowding and unhealthy conditions did not yet represent a genuine threat to the freedom consigned in the contracts. The global political system preserves the warranties of freedom, whereas there was a signed contract.

<sup>33</sup> *Shipping and Mercantile Gazette*, Tuesday, February 12, 1850.

<sup>34</sup> *Shipping and Mercantile Gazette*, Tuesday, February 12, 1850.

<sup>35</sup> *The Daily Post*. Jan 19, 1857.

*The Dilemma of Freedom: A Chinese Story in the Coolie Diaspora to Cuba (1847–1853) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110738*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Habana, 23 de marzo de 1852. ANC (Habana 23 de marzo de 1852. Conforme lo acordado en Junta de Autoridades celebrada en 13 del actual a consecuencia del proyecto de Villoldo Wardrove sobre introducir colonos asiáticos en la isla, y habiendo hecho igual solicitud don Manuel B Poveda, lo autorizo para la introducción desde luego de 3000 de los colonos esperados, sugetandose a las bases propuestas por la Real Junta de Fomento y contrata en lo referente al macsimum que se fija por el traspaso de cada uno de los ocho colonos, de que se le remitirá copia con oficio relativo al particular.).*

Going deeper into the meaning of the legal majority—among Kantian terms adduced in the contracts originally signifies the recognition of the historical condition of the subject. The whole body of documentation emphasizes the legality of the hiring; it also defines the labor obligation, which will receive an economic reward (salary), that, no matter the amount, is still considered a payment for the work delivered (**Figure 3**).

Once the Chinese coolie left the embarking ports in southern China, they acquired a different legal condition under the surveillance of the international system, understood as a political device invented by the Europeans in the sixteenth century "to regulate European powers' affairs." International laws serve in this case as the referee in implementing human resources to fulfill immigrant demands [22]. In response to this, transoceanic vessels must offer spacious accommodation, air, and ventilation, as well as doctors and translators on board. There was also the requirement of enough food and water supply to complete the notion of nutritional scheme proper of the nineteenth century.

*"I am enabled to report to your lordship that there was no blame whatever attached to the masters of either vessel, that whom it would perhaps be very difficult to find more humane or competent persons in our mercantile marine…."36*

<sup>36</sup> *The Daily News*. Apr 17, 1858.


#### **Figure 3.**

*Chinese coolie contract. Stamp general consulate of Spain in China. Macao, Sept 5, 1851.*

While all of those demands rest in the European power's agreements about international law, the dealers continued embarking on thousands of Chinese coolies without complying with the humanitarian commitment.

But their destiny story gets worse because, no matter the dramatic traverse of 3 or 4 months through the Indic and Atlantic, they arrived in a new legal condition in Cuba. Only then they realize that promises of freedom depend on the master's condescending. In this manner, the analysis of contracting and displacing Chinese coolies to Cuba offers a comprehensive overview of the interpretation of freedom. The earlier years of Chinese indenture received an impressive reception from Chinese and Cubans; also, many economists defended the philanthropic intention of the system because of the alternative provided to the capitalist economic relation, which was significantly affected by the persistence of slavery in some communities.

After arriving in the sugar mills, Chinese coolies started to occupy a new legal condition ruled by the established workplace standard. In most cases, Chinese coolies began to share the same authority as enslaved people. Freedom and slavery relations coexisted without much trouble. However, Chinese coolies received a different perception owing to the freedom signed; they were supposed to gain a salary, even if that meant a few amounts in exchange for their labor force. Patrons were also committed to providing clothes and food and taking care of the health in case of sickness. It is worth saying that some patrons fulfilled part of their commitments, but many aspects close to Slavery, such as overworking, physical punishment, and the loss of citizenship, were common. This analysis would gain more elements if it considered the social condition of the peasantry there in China, intending to comprehend the cultural clash for the Chinese coolie living under the state of indentured service in Cuba.

*They are penned up at night, hundreds of men together, like mules or oxen, in jaillike barracoons, and guarded by ferocious bloodhounds, kept in every state for the* 

*The Dilemma of Freedom: A Chinese Story in the Coolie Diaspora to Cuba (1847–1853) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110738*

*purpose. I fully believe, "says Mr. Lamont, "That they are literally worked to death in a very few years."37*

*It is not probable that our Government or the officials in the Islands would permit the Coolies to be cruel or unjustly treated, as they are in Cuba, Peru, &c.<sup>38</sup>*

*Every day I hear of new cases of atrocity connected with Coolie emigration to the West Indies. That poor, ignorant people are absolutely kidnapped, and others systematically deceived under the promise of high remuneration, has been long suspected.<sup>39</sup>*

*All the old arguments in defence of the kidnapping, exporting, and selling of the wretched Africans will be reproduced, refurbished, and sharpened for the new war against humanity.40*

## **5. Rational action: motivation**

Poverty in China in the mid-nineteenth century could not be an explanatory argument about the events regarding tricks, kidnapping, and extortion, in addition to physical and mental punishment executed by dealers and patrons over the Chinese coolies. The fact that many contracting firms experienced revolts, riots, and disturbances, some in the middle of the sea, shows the cruel reality of the hiring system. We must picture the scene where the innocent Chinese peasant, caught in Kwangtung or Fukien, discovers he is a deceitful victim [23]. Naturally, the alternatives were to drown in the ocean rather than continue to a tragic destiny in the Caribbean. Thus, the rational choice consisted in selecting an open resistance in the open sea against their captures or continuing on a trip geared toward a new form of slavery.

The discussion about freedom regains importance between the frame of rational risks assumed by the Chinese peasantry and business people living in adverse social conditions produced by the dramatic changes in the socio-economic field, mainly in Southern Chinese maritime ports. Corresponds, then, to find out the motivation of Chinese peasantry to immigrate, without restricting or relating the analysis to notions of European freedom, because the political process of the Chinese must be studied inside the inner conditions, although prevailing a global glance. From this perspective, overpopulation, famine, rebellions—such as the Taiping—government corruption, and unemployment are critical for the historical analysis. All those facts achieve relevance in the context of new economic conditions emerging from the European invasion of China after 1839 ([24], p. 45; [20], p. 32; [25], p. 453; [13], pp. 41-47).

*Everywhere there are bands of robbers and pirates scouring the country and its waters, oppressing the rich, pillaging the poor, and seizing whatever comes their way. The natural consequence of this state of things is stagnation of trade and commerce, a general feeling of insecurity of life and property, a rise in the price of provisions, fuel, clothes, and every necessary of life, occasioning much distress, poverty, and want among the poorer classes, especially in certain districts where labour and trade* 

<sup>37</sup> *The Courant*, Apr 30, 1857.

<sup>38</sup> *North British Daily Mail*. Feb 8, 1859.

<sup>39</sup> *The Lincolnshire chronicle, and Northampton, Rutland, and Nottingham Advertiser*, Aug 19, 1859.

<sup>40</sup> *Reynold's Newspaper*. Jan 20, 1861.

*are entirely suspended… It is difficult to imagine how such a vast mass of human beings as are here congregated together manage to live and support life, with so little occupation and business at their command. Foreign trade, which gives employment to thousands at this port, is now all but extinct, and native commerce must be seriously embarrassed when the great highways and channels of communication through the country are closed up and beset on every side with robbers.41*

In the light of socio-economic antagonism experienced by the Chinese, it resulted in the rational reaction of the known as coolies, which sought new sources of funds. Thus, notions of freedom and independence experience performance-defining elements essential to understanding the moral investment of immigrating outside China.42 To accept this idea of rational motivation, we must consider the role played by the owners of sugar mills and Cuban landowners, which executed a clean process, shielding their social performance with legal protection through the use of intermediaries that applied legal conditions of hiring. It is also possible that the hiring process maintained proper freedom manners, but the contract displays slavery conditions. That would clarify the day-to-day forms of resistance, such as sabotage, desertion, and abandonment of work, in addition to gossip and revenge, that express the whole rage against the indentured service. From this perspective, there must be a slight possibility of rational motivation in the contract and the embarkment from the Chinese perspective.43 However, social conditions in Cuba, which expanded very soon in barracks in China, altered the process of implementing Chinese indenture in the Caribbean (**Figure 4**).

It is, therefore, surprising the rising number of immigrant Chinese coolies to Cuba in such a short period, especially when the international political dimension attended the denouncement of violence, mistreatment, and many infringing ways to get more Chinese coolies. In this historical context, it is essential to reflect that many Chinese coolies could consider enlarging the diaspora after the exhaustion of any possibility of changing economic conditions. Thus, abandoning China express the most straightforward form of natural resistance to their government. The General Consul of Spain in Macao explained that: "the Chinese left for Cuba did so of their own volition."<sup>44</sup> Naturally, those statements participated in the contemporary political debate and did not necessarily mean the whole reality.

On the contrary, the dramatic social conditions of the Chinese in Cuba show that rational choice did not emerge from "their own volition." It was, in any case, the result of the same feeling of abandonment by the Chinese government that just in the middle 1870s sent a political mission to discover all the atrocities experienced by the Chinese subjects. In their statements, economic adversities in China operate as the mandatory situation that prompted their decision to migrate. On the other side, it is still a strong argument "lack of interest and corruption from part of the officers in Cuba."

The mystery about the dilemma that inspires this reflection is still unknown because many tracks lead us to discover the reason for the Chinese coolies to embark

<sup>41</sup> *The Sun*, London, Thursday Evening, Dec 28, 1854.

<sup>42</sup> Conclusions emerged from the debate among Sewell and Emmer regarding "independence's spirit that encouraged Asiatics to leave their countries" Emmer, "A "Spirit of Independence" or Lack of Education for the Market?", 94.

<sup>43</sup> Denialist reading of mistreatment, bravery and violence associated to the hiring of Chinese coolies presents a sociological approximation to the rational choices. Cf. Kamala [26].

<sup>44</sup> Narvaez, "Chinese Coolies in Cuba and Peru: Race, Labour, and Immigration, 1839-1886", 197.

*The Dilemma of Freedom: A Chinese Story in the Coolie Diaspora to Cuba (1847–1853) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110738*

#### **Figure 4.**

*"Circumstantiated rotation of the existing runaway slaves in the municipal deposit of this jurisdiction". Escaped Chinese. Matanzas, 1858. ANC.*

on the barracks.45 However, there are also so many gaps that the diaries and documentation in the archives could attend.

*One of the Chinese examined, and, although one of the prisoners, we place considerable confidence in his story, stated that he had been foully entrapped into going on board the vessel.46*

*On late years voluntary emigration from China has not been sufficient to meet the demands for labour in the various colonies. This has induced the formation of societies, which send agents to the different ports in the province of Canton and Fokien, to induce the people to emigrate.47*

*The revelations which have been made during the last year or two as to the manner in which these "voluntary labourers" or "apprentices" are kidnapped and huddled on board the English or American vessel employed to carry their to market, and how they are treated on the passage and after they arrive at their destination, surpass in cruelty and atrocity anything that has been ever said or written of the horrors of African slavery and the middle passage.48*

<sup>45</sup> Report of the commission sent by China to ascertain the condition of Chinese Coolies in Cuba. *Chinese Emigration. The Cuba Commission.* Taipei. Ch'eng wen publishing. 1970.

<sup>46</sup> *Lloys's Weekly Newspaper*, may 31, 1857.

<sup>47</sup> *Illustrated Times*, June 27, 1857.

<sup>48</sup> *The Liverpool Mercury*, July 24, 1857.

In this sense, the purpose is to make more complex the rationality of immigrating from China to Cuba in the quality of indenture service to determine two possible scenarios: the first one explains that social chaos, resulting from the recent sociopolitical turmoil, that drives the inner economy to extreme conditions of poverty, war, passivity, lack of interest, and willingness, act as the main reason and the explanation to the rational action. The second one explores dealers' role and tricks to raise their income by selling more Chinese coolies [27–32].

In any case, except those based on any manner of violence, ethical and moral values stand out regarding socio-economic provisions and ideological concepts, legitimating the contract of Chinese coolies to invigorate the Cuban economy. The hiring purpose executed innovative manners of dealing, led by Latin American dealers who represented British and Spanish firms, focused on the sugar and guano business. The dealers also used Chinese people to trick and engage the Chinese peasantry. In this form, hooking and hiring Chinese coolies correspond to the rational motivation of Chinese coolies, induced to choose immigration because of the harsh social conditions.

*Chinese coolies are kidnapped by Chinese crimps in the most approved fashion; they are invited to gamble (an invitation that no Chinaman can resist) hocussed with shamshoo, and put quietly on board junks in the harbour at night. In the morning they awake to find themselves gliding out of the bay, bound for the Portuguese settlement of Macao. On arrival there they are transferred to barracoons –prisons under another name– where they are fed, clothed, and carefully watched till sent on board ships and consigned to Cuba, where they are sold for 250 or 300 dollars as slaves… I am also told that their gaolers have methods of inducement, into which the bamboo enters largely, for persuading them to make this declaration, and its value as a true exposition of their real feelings is extremely doubtful. They are said to cost, on an average, from the date of kidnapping to the period of shipment for Cuba forty-five to fifty dollars each.<sup>49</sup>*

It is imperative to conclude by explaining the particularity of this specific case. First of all, the historical conditions of Latin American dealers show a global connection without precedents. In this same sense, it is crucial to recognize that those dealers acted in the representation of sugar mill landowners that appropriated and implemented the use of indenture service. Freedom appears interwoven with the Caribbean agro exporters' interest, its interpretation of the dealers, and the desire for liberty from the Chinese coolies. Ultimately, the contract of Chinese coolies as free workers stretches to the maximum capacity of the notion of freedom. The dealers, in those terms, became ingenious businessmen enriched by the economic demand of their time, although the perception of their deeds as crimes will require the judgment of history.

<sup>49</sup> *The Herts Guardian*, may 26, 1860.

*The Dilemma of Freedom: A Chinese Story in the Coolie Diaspora to Cuba (1847–1853) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110738*
