Date of Award

Spring 5-2021

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Program

History

Department

History

Major Professor

Robert Dupont

Second Advisor

John Fitzmorris

Third Advisor

Mary Mitchell

Abstract

Sugar planters in Louisiana during Reconstruction needed to replace the enslaved labor force that had fled the plantation system after the Civil War. These Louisiana planters took inspiration from the system of coolie labor in Cuba, wherein exploited Chinese indentured servants would work on sugar plantation alongside enslaved Africans. The white Cuban planters’ goal was to racially dilute their plantation labor force, thus making the existing power structures easier to maintain while avoiding Haitian-style slave uprising. Sugar planters in Louisiana intended to recreate the Cuban system to compel Freedmen to work for less than their worth by importing Chinese laborers, whom they thought would work for lower wages than Freedmen would have accepted otherwise. The Louisiana coolie experiment was an economic failure for sugar planters due to Republican intervention, white supremacist rhetoric, and resistance from the Chinese themselves.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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