Abstract
This study offers an interpretive historical rereading of the Ombilin coal mines in Sawahlunto, treating them not only as sites of colonial extraction but also as spaces in which coercive labor, criminalization, collective memory, and moral leadership intersect. It focuses on the colonial classification of orang rantai (chained laborers), questioning the assumption that this label represented a neutral legal category and considering how colonial penal practices supported coercive labor within the mining system. Using a qualitative historical approach based on document analysis of scholarly literature, institutional heritage documents, and documented public narratives, the study examines how orang rantai and the remembered figure of Mbah Soero have been represented and interpreted in historical and heritage narratives. The findings suggest that colonial penal classifications may have obscured the broader political, social, and coercive contexts in which these laborers were incorporated into the mining economy, while the remembered figure of Mbah Soero can be interpreted as embodying an ethical form of leadership grounded in solidarity and responsibility within collective memory. Rather than reconstructing the lived experiences of historical actors, this study offers an interpretive historical perspective that reconsiders colonial labor history through the interconnected dimensions of coercion, memory, and moral leadership.