As Bahadur explains it is their sexuality that makes coolie women stand out as figures in history. Greatly outnumbered by men, they were able to use sex with their overseers to gain various advantages, an act that often incited fatal retaliations from coolie men and sometimes larger uprisings of laborers against their overlords.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-263) and index.

The magician's box -- Ancestral memory -- The women's quarters -- Into dark waters -- Her middle passage -- A new world -- Beautiful woman without a nose -- Gone but not forgotten -- The dream of return -- Every ancestor -- Surviving history.