Work Conditions In Hawaii In The 1800's

A choice to either give up their family and country to work in labor or to stay home and live their normal lives. Some people from different countries would accept the first choice. They left their home, only bringing a few valuables to Hawaii and to work in a sugar plantation to fill the need of workers and to get a job in the booming business. But only in the future, people would know that plantation life in Hawaii in the 1800’s was very difficult for the immigrant workers. The living conditions in Hawaii were crowded and unsanitary, the working conditions were difficult, and race differences didn’t make a fair share of the jobs.

On parched fields with barely enough shade, were crowded with barracks, home to the immigrants. These houses, that had couples living in them, were 10 square feet and had a small kitchen with a homemade stove. (1) Some of the immigrants were feeling a little homesick so they made their new home like their old one by decorating it with traditional items. For example, source 1 said that some put up small shrines and others made homemade hot tubs to soak into after work. Some also beautified it with

For the jobs, the Europeans and Americans would get the management and skilled jobs, the Portuguese were lunas and camp policemen, and the Asians had the worst jobs.(1) The pay for these jobs would change depending on the race. For example, Japanese cane cutters earned 99 cents a day, but the Filipino counterparts earned 69 cents a day.(1) Even the houses were separated by race. There were houses and neighborhoods that only had Portuguese, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Japanese, and Korean immigrants.(1) But sometimes they would get together and fished, played cards, and gambled. Workers would even favor cockfights and spend money at taxi-dance halls, where Filipino bands would be paid to play a song that came with a dance with a