Act to prohibit the ‘Coolie Trade’
The Act to Prohibit the "Coolie Trade," also known as the Anti-Coolie Act of 1862, was a federal law in the United States aimed at curbing the immigration of Chinese laborers who were often subjected to exploitative conditions as indentured servants. Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, this act emerged during a period of significant Chinese migration fueled by economic hardships in China and the California Gold Rush. The law was part of a broader response to growing concerns among white laborers about competition for jobs, as many Chinese immigrants were willing to work for lower wages, heightening racial tensions.
The term "coolie," originally derived from South Indian language, became racially charged in the United States, referring specifically to Chinese laborers. Despite its intention to end the inhumane practices associated with the coolie trade—where workers were transported under brutal conditions—the Act proved largely ineffective and unenforceable. Alongside California's Anti-Coolie Act, which imposed a tax on Chinese miners, these laws ultimately failed to significantly impact Chinese immigration. However, they contributed to escalating anti-Chinese sentiments and laid the groundwork for more restrictive immigration policies, including the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
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Act to prohibit the 'Coolie Trade'
The Act to Prohibit the “Coolie Trade” was a US federal law also known as the Anti-Coolie Act of 1862. Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in February 1862, the act was an attempt to control Asian immigration by ending the so-called coolie trade that served as a source of cheap, disposable labor in the form of indentured Chinese workers. Its enactment coincided with the passage of the similarly named Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 in California. This law was designed to protect the interests of White laborers by placing a monthly tax on Chinese immigrants who wished to work in the state. While neither of these laws ultimately had a significant effect on the issue of Chinese labor, both contributed to growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States and helped set the stage for the more impactful Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Background
The passage of the Act to Prohibit the Coolie Trade and California’s Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 was a response to the growing problem of cheap Chinese labor in nineteenth-century America. Most linguists believe that the term coolie originated as a derivation of kuli, a word that meant “wages” in the South Indian language of Tamil. When the British eventually assumed a position of power in India, first though the British East India Company and later via direct colonial rule, coolie was adopted as a British bureaucratic term referring to indentured laborers. In the United States, coolie came to be used in a more racially charged context as a term for the many Chinese laborers who began migrating to America in the late 1840s.
In the mid-nineteenth century, demand for cheap labor in the West grew steadily as the practice of slavery began to decline. The ongoing global effort to abolish slavery resulted in a widespread labor shortage. In hopes of resolving this crisis, the areas where slavery was being phased out quickly became reliant on contract laborers who migrated from abroad. These laborers, who mostly came from China, were soon referred to as coolies.
As demand for cheap labor increased, an industry of sorts arose around the transport of migrant laborers that became known as the coolie trade. Operated by Western merchants, the coolie trade saw large numbers of migrant laborers shipped overseas to do menial work in the United States and elsewhere. These laborers were often forced to endure inhumane conditions in the depots where they awaited transport and onboard the ships that took them to their destinations. Such poor conditions meant that illness and misery were rampant. Many laborers died during the journey. Those who survived were likely to face equally difficult conditions when they started their new jobs. This was in part because many of the early coolies were contract workers specifically brought to work on Caribbean plantations in roles previously filled by enslaved Africans. In short, the coolie trade was a brutal institution little better than the slave trade.
Overview
Chinese immigration to the United States through the coolie trade began in earnest in the mid-nineteenth century. Many of those who immigrated at that time did so in hopes of escaping difficult economic circumstances resulting from a series of damaging floods and droughts in China and the Opium Wars, a pair of battles that Great Britain waged against China to keep opium trafficking routes in the region open. Chinese immigrants also flocked to the western United States in great numbers after the California Gold Rush began in the late 1848. In 1852 alone, more than twenty thousand Chinese immigrants arrived in California, a significant increase from fewer than three thousand the prior year. While many found work as miners, others worked on farms or in the textile industry. Others helped build the Central Pacific and Transcontinental railroads.
The massive influx of Chinese immigrants soon became problematic. Because most of the immigrants were willing to work for lower wages than their White counterparts, many of the latter quickly found themselves out of work or at least competing for whatever jobs were left available. This inflamed racial tensions and frequently led to violent outbursts. Matters worsened when the United States entered a recession in 1853. The recession resulted in a decline in railroad investments that helped drive down the price of gold and other commodities. Seeking to maximize their profits, the Californians who owned the land where gold was mined came to rely even more on Chinese immigrants who were willing to work for less. This led angry domestic miners to form so-called coolie clubs that opposed the use of Chinese immigrants and stoked racial animosities.
By the early 1860s, there were growing calls for government officials to do something to quell the Chinese immigration problem. Two laws addressing this matter were soon passed. One was the Act to Prohibit the Coolie Trade. A federal statute passed by the US Congress and signed into law by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, the act was an attempt to reduce Chinese immigration by outlawing the coolie trade. The Republicans who controlled Congress at the time supported the act as a way of preventing Southern plantation owners from using coolie labor to replace their enslaved Africans when slavery was inevitably abolished. The other law was California’s 1862 Anti-Coolie Act. This law aimed to discourage employers from using coolie labor by imposing a tax on Chinese miners.
Neither law was ultimately effective. The Anti-Coolie Act was determined to be unconstitutional just a year after it was passed. The Act to Prohibit the Coolie Trade proved to be unenforceable because there was no way to systematically identify someone as a coolie. Despite their failures, these laws paved the way for more stringent future legislation aimed at limiting Chinese immigration. This most notably included the 1875 Page Act, which restricted the immigration of Chinese women, and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which instituted a ten-year ban on the immigration of Chinese laborers.
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