The Cuba Commission Report: A Hidden History of the Chinese in Cuba : The Original English-Language Text of 1876 - Couverture souple

9780801846410: The Cuba Commission Report: A Hidden History of the Chinese in Cuba : The Original English-Language Text of 1876

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0801846412 ISBN 13 : 9780801846410

Editeur : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993

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With the impending end of slavery in the 19th century, thousands of labourers were brought to the Americas from China and other countries to "ease the eventual transition" to freedom. Workers came with the promise, guaranteed by contract, of independence and opportunities after limited years of employment. But contract labourers were hardly different from slaves: treatment was brutal, contracts were ignored and labourers were killed or imprisoned if they refused to extend their periods of service. In 1873, prompted by reports of such abuse in the Spanish colony of Cuba, the government of China sent an Imperial Mission to investigate the living and working conditions of Chinese labourers on the island's sugar plantations. The result was "The Cuba Commission Report", a gruesome record of the experience of Chinese workers in Cuba, corroborated by hundreds of depositions taken from the labourers themselves. Despite obstacles posed by the Cuban officials - who were struggling with the likelihood of emancipation on the one hand and the labour demands of a burgeoning industry on the other - the commissioners managed to collect testimony from hundreds of Chinese "coolies". It is this testimony that clearly reveals patterns of brutality, dishonesty and racism. The introduction by Denise Helly establishes the context for this episode in the international history of labour, as well as the histories of Cuba, Caribbean plantations and the overseas Chinese. In a special note to the reader, Rebecca Scott and Sidney Mintz describe the kinds of information contained in this document.

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