Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 (Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture) [Paperback]

Walton Look Lai (Author)

Book Description

Series: Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture | Publication Date: January 29, 2004

In Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar Walton Look Lai offers the first comprehensive study of Asian immigration and the indenture system in the entire British West Indies—with particular emphasis on the experiences of indentured laborers in the major receiving colonies of British Guyana, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Exploring living and working conditions as well as the makeup of immigrant communities and their cultures, Look Lai offers a "dialectical pluralist" model of Caribbean acculturation that contrasts with the more familiar "melting pot" or "pure pluralist" model.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A work of rich scholarship... Look Lai proves an adept and perceptive labor historian. His sensitive depiction of the world of the indentured East Asian workers of Trinidad and British Guyana is easily the best available: it is a notable achievement that sets a high standard for future research on the topic.

(Labor History 2008)

This carefully researched book... thoughtfully compares the experiences and responses of the Chinese and Indians as they settled in and became part of these colonial societies, the former often moving into trade and the later largely remaining in agriculture... A well written study, highly recommended for students of Asian-American and Caribbean studies, and migration history.

(Choice )

Look Lai's excellent book... is the first 'integrated' history of Asian migration to the Caribbean which incorporates (and often compares) the experiences of both Asian groups... illuminating an important chapter in Caribbean history.

(Journal of Caribbean History )

Important not only for the study of Atlantic history and culture, but also for the comparative study of migration, labor coercion, and the effects of labor segmentation in the labor process... It is an excellent book, thoroughly researched, clearly organized, and well written, and it deserves a wide audience.

(International Labor and Working Class History )

Should be required reading for Caribbeanists, scholars of Asian diasporas, and labor historians.

(New West Indian Guide )

A most welcome addition to the growing literature on Asian migration to the West Indies... well structured and well written.

(International Review of Social History )

Sound in its scholarship and detailed in its findings... A fine piece of work.

(Brian L. Moore Business History Review )

Well-researched and lucidly written... Look Lai's excellent study puts us all in his debt.

(Sunday Guardian (Trinidad) )

Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar provides fascinating detail on the origin and implementation of the indentured labor system in British Guiana, Trinidad, and Jamaica... filled with a solid array of well-researched details.

(Surendra Bhana SAFUNDI: The Journal of South African and American Studies )

About the Author

Walton Look Lai is Lecturer in History at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. He is a former Rockefeller Foundation fellow at the Asian American Center, Queen's College, City University of New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (January 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801877466
• ISBN-13: 978-0801877469
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look Lai has produced an excellent historical text., January 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 (Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture) (Hardcover)

Look Lai has presented an in-depth analysis of Chinese and East Indian immigrants who migrated from their home countries and went to new lands in the West Indies where there worked in sugar plantations as indentured laborers. His hybridization thesis is refreshing and brings to light the different cultural experiences these immigrants had in the British colonies of Trinidad, Jamaica and Guyana. I recommend this text to anyone interested in learning about the history of plantation labor in the 19th. century and about the tumultuous events that occurred. This author is the only one so far who has investigated the West Indian Chinese and East Indian cultures together and he has worked to put the text into its correct historical context. Easy to read. A must for those who want to read about how two races, Chinese and East Indians, had ethnic tensions within their own cultural backgrounds: the caste system delineated who was higher in rank and who was at the bottom for those who came originally from India, and the Hakka/Cantonese differences were pre-emminent. Look Lai proves that the precursor of events that took place, the British immigration laws, the indentureship system, the riot incidents, and the tensions among the white plantocracy and freed slaves and indentured laborers, paved the way for the political and economic problems of the 20th. century. I enjoyed the book tremendously. Henrietta Akit. B.A. Hons.in History, University of Western Ontario, Canada.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Family ties to ex-indentured servants, July 20, 2008

By 

Elba Conde Latuff - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 (Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture) (Paperback)

For those wanting to explore an indepth account of indenture this is a reliable and enlightning source. If you have a passion for Caribbean literature, having read this book will make the Caribbean novels you read come alive, because it gives the historical account of how the Chinese and Indian migrants arrived in the West Indies and of all the vicissitudes they endured. For many years the focus of intelectuals had centered on the arrival of the African slaves and their work in the sugar cane plantations of the West Indies. Now, Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar allows us to have a full picture of the migrants that constitute the greater part of the population of former colonies like Trinidad and British Guiana, among others, and establishes a basis for comparison between the two waves of migrations: the imposed African migration and the latter "voluntary" one described in this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar by Walton Look Lai, November 1, 2007

By 

N. Brijbasi - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 (Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book for the student or a casual reader who wishes to learn the background of their ancestors who were transported to the Caribbean as indentured laborers. It is probably the best account that I have ever read and it comfirms some of the stories I heard from my mother and grandmother.It has led me to seek other books on the subject from other sources and even to become curious of the history of India from where my ancestors came, from their accounts, willingly in search of a better life, which they apparently found after the initial sacrifice. We their decendants further emigrated to the USA in search of better education and lifestyles which we in turn found, and are happy with. Now I am curious of the sacrifices they made to make all of this possible.