What does coolie mean?

COOLIE, or CooLY (from Koli or Kuli, an aboriginal race of western India; or perhaps from Tamil huh, hire, i.e. one hired), a term generally applied to Asiatic laborers belonging to the unskilled class as opposed to the artisan, and employed in a special sense to designate those natives of India and China who leave their country under contracts of service to work as laborers abroad. After the abolition of slavery much difficulty was found in obtaining cheap labor for tropical plantations. The emancipated black was unwilling to engage in field labor, while the white man was physically incapable of so doing. Recourse was had to the overpeopled empires of China and India, as the most likely sources from which to obtain that supply of workers upon which the very existence of some colonies, notably in the West Indies, depended.


sources

http://96.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CO/COOLIE.htm

http://immigrants.harpweek.com/ChineseAm...ems/Item022.htm