Original Chinese Coolie Contract (1859) – Macau to Cuba – Havana Asiatic Company D1

This extraordinary primary source documents the exploitative labor system that emerged in 19th-century Cuba following the African slave trade's prohibition. The contract binds Gaudioso, a 30-year-old Chinese laborer, to eight years of indentured servitude under the Havana Asiatic Company. It specifies compensation of 4 pesos monthly alongside provisions of rice, salted meat, and root vegetables, along with clothing and medical care—yet simultaneously enforces stringent discipline and obedience requirements. This rare document reveals how Cuban planters circumvented slavery abolition through systematic importation of Asian workers under conditions approximating bondage. For scholars examining colonial labor exploitation, migration history, and the intersection of race and economics in the Caribbean, this contract provides unfiltered testimony to a pivotal and troubling chapter in Cuba's social development. An invaluable resource for institutional archives and serious historical collections.