Have you ever considered what life for the sugar plantation laborers in Hawaii were like? Many different races came to Hawaii in the 1800s. They came to work on the sugar plantations so that they could take back their earnings to their home country. The races that came were the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Portuguese, Norwegians, Puerto Ricans, Spaniards, germans, and Russians. Many left their families and came to Hawaii, but some brought their families with them. Plantation life in Hawaii in the 1800-1900s was arduous because living conditions were terrible, working conditions were grueling, and different races were treated very differently.
First, the living conditions in Hawaii in the 1800s were close to inhabitable and terrible. According to source 1, most plantation workers were miserable. They lived in work camps that were both crowded and unsanitary. Usually, two couples had to share a 10-foot-square room had one kitchen. Also, their homes were in parched fields that didn't have much shade. They were only fed a pre-dawn bowl of rice for the 10-12 hours of work ahead. They were charged for transportation, housing, clothing, and food. Source 2 also says that sometimes forty people lived in one room and slept on hard wooden boards. Living in conditions like this was harsh and unfair.
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Source 1 claims that weed-clearing-crews were bent over all day pulling weeds. Other workers had to rid the sugarcane of its sharp-edged leaves and therefore suffered from blisters and cuts. Plantation workers also had to endure the wasps that infested the fields. When they cut the sugarcane, clouds of dust make breathing troublesome. In addition, work was harsh and and unfair. "If laborers slowed down or showed signs of not working, lunas whipped them with black snake whips" (source 2.) Working conditions for the laborers were both repetitive and