Chinese Caribbeans

Between 1853 and 1879, 14,000 Chinese slaves were imported to the British Caribbean as part of a larger system of low-wage labor bound for the sugar plantations. Imported as a low-wage labor force from China, Chinese settled in three main locations: Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana (now Guyana), initially working on the sugar plantations. Most of the Chinese slaves initially went to British Guiana; however when importation ended in 1879, the population declined steadily, mostly due to emigration to Trinidad and Suriname.[4]

Chinese immigration to Cuba started in 1847 when Cantonese low-wage workers were brought to work in the sugar fields, bringing their native Chinese folk religion with them. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese slaves were brought in from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan during the following decades to replace and / or work alongside African slaves. After obtaining their freedom, some descendants of Chinese slaves settled permanently in Cuba, although most longed for repatriation to their homeland. When the United States enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act on May 6, 1882, many Chinese in the United States fled to Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Latin American nations. They established small niches and worked in restaurants and laundries.[5]

The Chinese slaves who entered the British West Indies in the middle and late nineteenth century formed a marginal but distinct part of the global dispersal of southern Chinese characteristics of the period.[6] Next to those in the United States, on the one hand, and in Cuba and Peru, on the other, they formed the third largest regional grouping of Chinese arrivals to the Western Hemisphere in the mid-century. About 15,000[6] arrived in British Guiana, with just under 3,000 going to Trinidad and Jamaica, to work as indentured laborers in the sugar industry.[6]

Although the patterns of their entry into these new societies represented a microcosmic version of the story of the Chinese diaspora in the nineteenth century, there were a number of note-worthy distinctive traits attached to this regional experience.

The bulk of Chinese coolies migration to the West Indies occurred between 1853 and 1866.[7] By the end of the nineteenth century, some 18,000[6] Chinese would arrive in the West Indies, with the vast majority of those slaves headed for Guyana.[7] As was the case with most migration out of China in the nineteenth century, the slaves were drawn from southern China and were seeking to escape desperate conditions caused by a combination of environmental catastrophes and political unrest.

There were also a considerable number of Christian converts among the Chinese migrants as a result of the colonial government's willingness to rely on Christian missionaries to assist them in their recruitment endeavors, particularly in the recruiting of family units.[7] The use of Christian missionaries in recruitment[7] was just one of many measures that the colonial government used in its venture to avoid accusations that indenture was simply another form of slavery.[7] The government was particularly sensitive to such accusations because it was competing directly with other European powers, particularly Spain, to recruit low-wage laborers from China.[6] The recruitment of Chinese slaves was generally conducted by professional recruiters, known as "crimps", who were paid per individual recruit, while the recruits themselves received a cash advance. In the 1850s, the demand for Chinese slave and the fees paid to the crimps increased so dramatically[6] that the system quickly became notorious for its association with abuse and coercion, including kidnapping.[7] The system was said to be known as "the sale of Little Pigs",[7] alluding to the inhumane treatment migrants often faced.

The exposure of this inhumane system led to a series of ordinances being passed which, despite not directly enhancing the state of indentured Chinese, eventually played a key role in ending Chinese slavery in the West Indies.[7] In 1866, the Kung Convention signed in China, but never ratified in Britain, specifically provided back passage for the Chinese slaves.[8] West Indian planters were not, however, prepared to cover the additional cost that this would incur, especially in light of the fact that India was proving more than sufficient as a source of coolie. After the Chinese government refused to back down on the provision, interest in the Chinese Caribbeans as slaves seems to have simply faded.[8]