The word would enter the English language in the 1830s, as the indentured labor system gained currency as a replacement for the use of slavery in the British Empire.Īlthough the word "coolie" is primarily associated today with the histories of the Caribbean and South America, indentured labor was a widespread reality in mid-19th century America. It's widely believed that the word "coolie" is derived from the South Indian language Tamil, in which the word "kuli" means wages (similar-sounding words with equivalent definitions exist in several other South Asian languages as well). The dictionary definition of "coolie" is simply "a hired laborer." But the term quickly became synonymous with the thousands of East and South Asians that traveled to the Americas as part of a system of indentured labor used throughout the British colonies. So what, exactly, is a coolie? And how much do they get paid? In a private meeting after the trade was announced, Durocher taunted Rickey and reportedly said, "I've heard about your chain gangs and your coolie wages and I don't want any part of it." Many years before, infielder Leo Durocher tried to block his trade to the St. But, this was not the first time Rickey had been accused of being tightfisted with player salaries. Jimmy Powers, a columnist for the New York Daily News, dubbed Rickey "El Cheapo." In 1950, just as Spring Training was about to begin, Powers accused Rickey of paying his players "coolie wages" after two members of the team were reportedly asked to take pay cuts. But his other baseball legacy was the invention of the farm system whereby, as Jimmy Breslin described it, Rickey "gathered players of promise and grew them, like crops, on minor league teams, or farm clubs." Rickey was known for being a savvy and tightfisted businessman. Louis Cardinals, is best known to posterity for breaking baseball's color line by hiring Jackie Robinson from the Negro Leagues. While the word today is usually associated with the history of the Caribbean, in fact, "coolie" had long been used a slur against low-wage, immigrant laborers in the United States.īranch Rickey, the legendary general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Here they have to sort of preserve family, preserve culture." "And these women sort of carry the baggage of colonialism the expectations of white men, the expectations of Indian men. "In India - in the subcontinent - a 'coolie' is someone who carries baggage," said Bahadur.
I did it because to me, the women who migrated as indentured laborers carried enormous burdens."īahadur's great-grandmother was one of thousands of Indians who would sign indenture contracts with British companies and go to work in the sugar cane fields of the Caribbean. So naming the book Coolie Woman was controversial. " was the bureaucratic term the British used to describe indentured laborers," Bahadur recently told NPR's Tell Me More. The book has been getting lots of press, including here at NPR, and has also brought the word "coolie" - a largely forgotten term with a racially charged history - back into the public spotlight. In her recently-released book Coolie Woman, author Gaiutra Bahadur traces the life story of her great-grandmother, who boarded an indenture ship in Calcutta in the early 1900s. You can see past "Word Watch" entries here. These indentured laborers, derogatorily called "coolies," became a prime target for criticism in the mid-19th century.Įach week, we take a look at a word or phrase that's caught our attention, whether for its history, usage, etymology, or just because it has an interesting story. Nine out of 10 workers on the transcontinental railroad were Chinese.
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