Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Challenges of a Transnational History -- Chapter 1: Historical Context of Coolie Traffi c to the Americas -- The Narrative of Transition -- The Early Experiments -- Chinese and Indian Coolie Labor -- Chinese Coolies and "Tea with Sugar" -- Coolies on Ships and the Passage -- Coolies on American Ships -- Coolies on Land -- Chapter 2: The Coolie Testimonies -- The Commission Investigation -- Methodological Challenges of Reading Testimonies -- Coolie Testimonies and African Slave Narratives -- Who Were the Coolies? -- Chapter 3: The Petitions -- The Witness Petition -- The Verse Petition -- The Argument Petition -- Philosophical Prelude -- Chasing Freedom -- Slaves of the Market -- The Paper Chase Petition -- Chapter 4: The Depositions -- Race, Resistance, and Spectacular Subordination -- The Peculiar Fatality of Color -- Struggle Before Solidarity -- The Cost of Domination -- Chapter 5: An Afro- Chinese Author and the Next Generation -- The Subversive and the Translator -- The Motley Tongue -- Liberation, Solidarity, and "Socio- po liti cal Adultery" -- Coolies and Californians -- Conclusion: Old and New Maps of Coolies -- Addendum: Selected Petitions -- Sources -- Notes.