coolies
Historical manual workers
Coolies is the plural of coolie, a dated and now offensive term for an unskilled Asian laborer, particularly from China or India.
The word was used from the 19th century through the mid-20th century for workers brought to build railroads, work plantations, or perform other manual labor: The railroad was built on the backs of coolies.
The term carries strong colonial and racist connotations and is considered deeply offensive today.
Formal binding contract
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
- railroadPermanent track for trains
immigration · diaspora · servitude · transcontinental · imperialism · emancipation · subjugation · guano
indenture
Formal binding contract
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
railroad · immigration · diaspora · servitude · transcontinental · imperialism · emancipation · subjugation · guano · rubber
toil
Strenuous, prolonged effort
- drudgeryHard, boring work
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- underpaidGiven inadequate wages
migrant · hardship · struggle · endurance · subsistence · unskilled · wages · sweat · physical · strain
load
Carried weight or burden
transport · rickshaw · palanquin · freight · cargo · baggage · dockworker · stevedore · bearer · wharves
- Chinese AmericaChinese Exclusion Act, Chinatown, Chinatowns, transcontinental railroad, railroad workers
- Old ChinaBeijing, Peking, Shanghai, Forbidden City, Great Wall
- French IndochinaIndochina, Saigon, Tonkin, Hanoi, Tonkinese
- Qing ChinaQing dynasty, Manchu, Aisin Gioro, banners, Eight Banners
- Southeast AsiaVietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia
- farmworkersfarmhand, farmworker, farm laborer, field hand, farm hand
cooliesmaster craftsmen
Experts in skilled trades
craftsmen · artisans · professionals · specialists · journeymen
cooliesmasters
Those with dominion
plantation owners · colonial administrators · overseers · employers · landowners
cooliesfreemen
Those no longer enslaved
independent contractors · self-employed · unionized workers · free agents · entrepreneurs