Indentured Labor In The Caribbean

A major feature in the Caribbean, in regards to Labor Migration, is the relationship between unfree (slavery), ambiguously free (indenture), and free. These similarities and differences in treatment of Indians in the British Caribbean colonies, indentured Chinese in Cuba, and free laborers in Jamaica can be seen throughout history. These relationship betweens these groups and others in the Caribbean shapes the Caribbean we know today. These experiences can be seen through the difference and similarities between indenturement vs. slavery and the concept of the Cultural Evolutionary Model. The Pagoda by Patricia Powell and Lisa Yun and Verena Shepard depict the similarities and differences between these groups’ experience. The Cultural Evolutionary …show more content…
In Cuba, the indenture chinese worked alongside the enslaved africans as Cuba abolished slavery in 1886. In Lisa Yun’s reading, “The Depositions” contains testimonies of Chinese who were indenture in regards to their living and working condition in the sugar plantation in Cuba. This investion was followed by a Cuban Commission Report. Many recalled violence and humiliation as a daily occurrence. These coolies (name given to indentured laborers) recalled being witness to physical punishment such as lashing, chopping of ears and fingers etc. almost on a daily basis. These physical punishment, in a way, equate to how enslaved people were treated as well as the labor conditions both groups were under. Punishment was also in the form of Ritual-as-spectacle which the public humiliation of people on a regular basis as a strategy to show domination or superiority, “Liang was subjected to drinking urine, but more specifically, to drinking urine of a black female slave” (Yun 175). This form of humiliation was used to denote the value of the chinese coolie as inferior that the enslaved female african. In regard to the female enslaved african, she was subject to humiliation by having to pee in front of her master. Indenture Chinese were subject to humiliation just as free laborers in Jamaica as …show more content…
All three groups’ value was denoted. They were all view inferior in the context they were in as there was always a comparison from them and the others. Although treatment were majorly similar, the degree in treatment was different. Indentured Indian sustained criticism based on gender. Gender was a key factor for Indian coolies worth and wage. For Indenture Chinese, subjected to both humiliation and physical punishment (combined and not combined) as methods to express inferiority. Free Laborers were reminded of their place in society through their treatment in the villages they lived in such as name calling, burning of shops etc. To understand the Caribbean it is important to not only look at the relationship between these groups and others, but also the relationship among or between these