Chapter 4, pgs. 132-178 Summary and Analysis

More than three hundred thousand Asians came to the Hawaiian islands between 1850 and 1920. The workers were needed to staff the sugar plantations. The planters treated the workers well because it was good business. A worker weak with hunger was not productive. The occupational structure was based on race, with Asians at the lowest rung of the occupational ladder.

Workers were issued coupons that entitled them to dollars. Many learned to counterfeit these coupons. There was always resistance from the workers, and sometimes there was violence. Discipline was always a problem, and some workers fled without completing these contracts.

When President Roosevelt signed a law prohibiting Japanese from migrating from Hawaii to the mainland, the Japanese had to make a better life for themselves in Hawaii.

In 1900, the plantations were plagued by strikes and there was even more...