The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1857-06-03
Horrors Of the Cooley Trade.

Among the items of news brought by
the steamer ASIA are some which Illus.
trate, in a most forcible manner, the hor-
rors of that dreadful and inhuman traffic
in which Great Britain has become enga-
ged in lieu of the African slaye-trade.
We allude to the rising Of the poor kidnap-'
ped "coolies" who had been seduced and
stolen from their homes in China upon the,
British vessel Gnlmare, in which they de-;
signed, We presume, to return home; but
the mntihy Of the oppression was put down
with the loss Of twenty ty-seyen lives. An
other case was still more heartrending
and serious in its results. The coolies, y
melted to desperation by their wrongs, rose
on the Peruvian ship Carman, and set the
vessel on FIRE, when. all, more than two
hundred in number, perished with the yes
sci. and were either burnt or drowned
This tradesin s.eoolies" has become more
barbarons and atroeious than that Of the
| African slave trader, and it is high time it
was put a stop to by the moral sentiment
of mankind. England, however, patroni-
zes it; aud, while hypocritically mourning
over the wrongs of the Negro, she is in
dustriously engaged in Kidnapping from
their homes and piunging into the most
terrible slavery every year thousands Of
COOLIES" from the coast of China.
F. Inths hope of restoring the prosperity
tof her colonies to the State in which they
were before the West India emancipation,
her statesmen hit upon the idea of impor-
ting laborers from China, not avowedly,
| it is true, as slaves, but really and practi-
cally as such, from the poor people oi
that dehcely populated empire. They, BY
a sistem Of false representations, are indu-
ced to apprentice themselves for a long
/ term of years at hard labor in the West
1 Indies and South America, to which coun-
tries they are taken, and held in worse
than African bondage during ali their life
for they usually sink under their hardship.
long before the regular apprenticeship ex
.fpires. 1t is worse than slavery, for tht
4 old and infrm are supported in that state
..tbut the coolies, when unable to work, ar,
set free and turned out to die from star
vation and want. Being entirely igno
4 rant of their nature and character, tn,
tcoolies are inyeigled into contracts of ser
lvice, which they sign under circumstan
lees which are but little better or NOR
honorable on the part of their owner
/ than stealing or kidnapping them in th
first instance.
When they get out to sea, and begin t
realize their situation, the poor creature
rebel and desire to return to their homes
and then such consequences ensue as ar
narrated above The extent of the trafi
is great. Prom one single port in China
Mr. Parker the United States Minister
!, writes Mr.. Marcy thatsix thousand thre
f hundred and thirty eight coolies were ia
/, ken in 1855, bound for the West Indie
q and South America. Probably fifty thou
i sand year are kidnapped in all the EN-
' pire, if the truth were known. Its iniqni
: tiles and infarnies have long been know
i lin Great Britain, but the Abolition phi
o anthropists of that country have bee
dumb and blind to them, their attcntio
: being wholly engrossed and absorbed b
slavery in the United States. The Loi
o don Times few months since publishe
= communication, in which the writer say
o al nave myself, when in Havana, hear
r. accounts and witnessed scenes conneete
i with the traffic which are perfectly apna
i. ling. In some Instances the proportion
dead to living, at the conclusion of II
: voyage, has, been as high as two hundre
i Of the one for every three hundred of i
i other. In March, 1851, the British sh
!. Gertrude arrived at Havanna with a ca
IS 60 of one hundred and ninety-eight Chin
!. men, and in note appended we read,
- 1.-THE Gertrude's one hundreds and ffty- tv
!. Idied, 'sa go = -, .....s5..
; u .iSuch are the horrors of this sccol
slavetrade during the passage. When
N NJ arrives at his destination, in the najori
II Of instances, the Cooley finds that his mis-
: fIry has Just commenced
"a lsss X II
j "On arriving at Havana, after passil
. the duarentinc, the cooley, ifhe survive,