ABSTRACT
The interaction between international and domestic forces brought forth Chinese coolie emigration in the mid-nineteenth century. The anti-slavery movement began in the second half of the eighteenth century, and ended in the prohibition of slave trade in the first part of the nineteenth century. The termination of this lucrative trade gave rise to the demand of other types of slaves – Chinese coolies. The Treaty of Ghent of December 1814 obliged Britain and the United States of America to ban the inhuman African slave trade. With rigorous enforcement of the ban, the notorious slave trade that hitherto supplied the main source of cheap labor for European colonists in the new world came to an end. It is in this context that the Chinese coolies provided an alternative source of cheap labor.
