The "Orient" in the Caribbean

Two women of Indian descent brought as "coolie labor" in the post-emancipation period. New sources of cheap labor were required once former slaves continued to resist plantation-style labor and so cheap laborers were imported from India. The origins of the Indo-Caribbean communities in Guyana, Trinidad, parts of the French Caribbean, and their subsequent migrations to New York City are a result of this 19th century movement. Today, more than half of Guyana's population is of Indian descent and Trinidad's is nearly half.