A plantation is a large farm or estate where crops such as sugar cane, coffee, tobacco, and cotton are grown for sale. Sugar cane was one of the most common crops grown in Hawaiian plantations. The plantation owners in Hawaii imported the workers for the plantations from other countries. Chinese were the first ethnicity that was imported to Hawaii to work on the plantations. Japanese were imported next, followed by Koreans and Filipinos.
The living conditions of plantation workers were horrible. The plantation workers had to do backbreaking work for very long hours. There houses were very primitive. The wages that they earned for their backbreaking work on the plantation was minimal. The plantation foremen had been reported to be physically abusive to the workers. Plantation work usually consisted of planting, hoeing, and carrying sugar cane. The plantation workers' living quarters were divided by ethnicity; Japanese in one section, Filipino in another section, etc. The plantation workers bought their food and other supplies from plantation stores. If they could not afford what they needed the stores would give them a credit. This caused a lot of plantation workers to get into heavy debt because their wages were so minimal that they could not afford to pay off these debts.
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteThis is great information! I'm glad you've shared this with everyone. These are the conditions the Oyama family is experiencing in this text!
As we continue reading, we'll consider how this system works and the affect it has on families. How do families get out of debt and off the plantations? How do children rise out of poverty?
Take care,
Lauren
Michelle:
ReplyDeleteSeems life on the sugar plantations was incredibly rough to us these days. Hawaii was the first U.S. possession to become a major destination for immigrants from Japan and they transformed that area by their presence. Great mention about the pay being minimal for these sugar cane workers as well as the work was hard and the days were long. thanks for the reading !! Daye
Thanks for sharing about the crops and plantations. I am glad we will be learning all the answers to the questions of how people got out of the debt they were in and how and how childre raised above poverty. I am very anxious to learn more about it. It must be a very hard task to get above a life you have lived and the only life you know. Usually, we follow the footsteps but it seems as if there is a way out. The question is "how"?
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Dina
Hi Michelle -
ReplyDeleteThank you for the informative post. I didn't know they imported workers from all over the world. It will be interesting to find out what type of wages, etc. were offered to the workers prior to them making the move and if the promises were fulfilled.
Another question I have is why did the plantation separate the housing areas by ethnicity...obviously to keep them away from each other, it will be interesting to find out.
Thank you,
Sarah Baker