Sugar plantations in Hawaii facts for kids
Sugarcane first arrived in Hawaiʻi with its early settlers around 600 AD. When Captain Cook explored the islands in 1778, he saw sugarcane growing. Soon, sugar became a huge business in Hawaiʻi. It caused many people to move to the islands, with over 337,000 immigrants arriving in just one century. The sugar grown in Hawaiʻi was mainly sent to the United States, but some also went to other countries. For a long time, sugarcane and pineapple farms were the biggest employers in Hawaiʻi. Today, both industries have mostly moved to other countries.
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How Sugar Plantations Started in Hawaiʻi
Industrial sugar production in Hawaiʻi began slowly. The very first sugar mill was built on the island of Lānaʻi in 1802 by a Chinese man who later returned to China. The Old Sugar Mill, started in 1835 by Ladd & Co., was the first large sugar plantation. In 1836, the first 8,000 pounds (about 3,600 kg) of sugar and molasses were shipped to the United States. The town of Koloa grew up next to this mill.
By the 1840s, sugarcane farms were becoming very important in Hawaiian farming. Steamships made travel to the islands fast and reliable. Demand for sugar also grew during the California Gold Rush. A land law in 1848, called The Great Mahele, changed how land was owned. This law moved Hawaiian people off their traditional lands, which helped create the sugar plantation system. In 1850, the law was changed again to let foreign residents buy and rent land.
When California became a state in 1850, sugar profits dropped because of new taxes on imports. The number of plantations went down to five. However, demand for sugar increased a lot during the American Civil War. This war stopped sugar from the Southern U.S. from being shipped north. The price of sugar jumped by 525%, from 4 cents per pound in 1861 to 25 cents in 1864.
The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 was a big deal. It allowed Hawaiʻi to sell sugar to the United States without paying taxes. This greatly increased how much money plantations made. This treaty also made sure that all resources, like land, water, workers, money, and technology, would be used for growing sugarcane. Later, the 1890 McKinley Tariff Act tried to make Hawaiian sugar less competitive. It paid U.S. mainland producers 2 cents per pound. But after a lot of effort from sugar companies, this act was canceled in 1894. By 1890, foreign businessmen owned 75% of all privately held land in Hawaiʻi.
The "Big Five" Sugar Companies
The sugar industry was largely controlled by a few powerful companies, known in Hawaiʻi as the "Big Five". These companies were Castle & Cooke, Alexander & Baldwin, C. Brewer & Co., H. Hackfeld & Co. (which later became American Factors, now Amfac), and Theo H. Davies & Co.. Over time, these companies also gained control over other parts of Hawaiʻi's economy, like banking, shipping, and importing.
This control meant that Hawaiians often had to pay high prices for goods and had a lower quality of life. The businessmen made sure that workers depended on the plantations for their wages, goods, and services. The "Big Five" had strong ties to the Hawaiian monarchy because many were descendants of early missionaries. With their money, cheap land, cheap workers, and growing global trade, they became very rich.
Alexander & Baldwin bought more sugar lands and also ran a shipping fleet between Hawaiʻi and the mainland. This shipping business later became Matson. The sons and grandsons of these early missionaries played a key role in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1893. This led to a short-lived republic. In 1898, the Republic of Hawaiʻi was taken over by the United States and became the Territory of Hawaiʻi. The sugar companies helped make this happen through their influence.
Bringing in Workers
When Hawaiian plantations started producing sugar on a large scale, they needed many more workers. The native Hawaiian population was much smaller than before 1778 because of diseases brought by outsiders. Also, Hawaiian people often preferred to farm and fish for themselves rather than work on plantations. So, plantation owners began bringing in workers from other countries. This greatly changed Hawaiʻi's population and is a strong example of how different parts of the world became connected.
In 1850, the first imported worker arrived from China. Between 1852 and 1887, almost 50,000 Chinese people came to work in Hawaiʻi. About 38% of them eventually returned to China. While these workers were needed, they also created new challenges for plantation owners, like providing food, housing, and care. Unlike Native Hawaiians, who could often live off the land, the Chinese immigrants needed more support.
To stop workers from organizing against them, plantation managers brought in people from many different ethnic groups. In 1878, the first Japanese workers arrived. Between 1885 and 1924, 200,000 Japanese people came, with 55% returning to Japan. Between 1903 and 1910, 7,300 Koreans arrived, and only 16% went back to Korea. In 1906, Filipino people first came. Between 1909 and 1930, 112,800 Filipinos came to Hawaiʻi, and 36% returned to the Philippines.
Plantation owners tried to keep workers separated by their ethnic group. This was meant to stop them from working together to demand better conditions. An interesting result of this mix of cultures was the creation of a new common language. This language, called Hawaiian Pidgin, mixed Hawaiian, English, Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese words. It allowed workers from different backgrounds to talk to each other and share their knowledge and traditions. The population changes between 1959 and 2005 show how Hawaiʻi's demographics continued to shift.
One special plantation was the Kohala Sugar Company, also known as "The Missionary Plantation." It was started by Reverend Elias Bond in 1862 to support his church and schools. He spoke out against the harsh conditions for workers. The money he made from the plantation helped many other missions. This plantation operated for 110 years.
How Sugar Plantations Affected the Environment
Sugar plantations had a huge impact on the environment around them. For example, in 1821, before sugar plantations took over, the area of Aiea was described as having many different people, taro and banana farms, and a fish pond. This way of farming for survival did not last long.
Plantations were built in specific places across the Hawaiian Islands. These spots had fertile soil, flat land, enough water for irrigation, and a mild climate. These plantations changed the land a lot, mainly to get water. They built tunnels to move water from the mountains to the plantations, constructed reservoirs, and dug wells.
Water was always a major concern for plantation managers. In the early 20th century, it took one ton of water to make one pound of refined sugar. This was a very wasteful use of water, and the islands naturally have limited fresh water. This led to serious environmental degradation. Sugar processing also needed a lot of other resources like coal, iron, wood, steam, and railroads for transportation.
Early sugar mills were very inefficient. They could produce molasses in four hours but used a whole cord of wood to do it. This high use of wood caused a lot of deforestation. Sometimes, entire ecosystems were destroyed for no good reason. One plantation drained a wet area of about 600 acres (2.4 square kilometers) to grow cane. After draining the land and changing its plant and animal life forever, they found it was an ancient forest. They cut down the trees for timber, only to discover that the land was completely unsuitable for growing sugarcane.
Sugar plantations were harmful to the environment in the past, and they can still be today. Major environmental problems linked to sugarcane plantations include air and water pollution, as well as how to properly get rid of the waste. Today, it's estimated that it takes 3 to 10 cubic meters of water to produce one ton of sugarcane.
Why Sugar Plantations Declined in Hawaiʻi
Sugar plantations in Hawaiʻi faced many of the same problems that other manufacturing industries in the United States experienced. Labor costs went up a lot when Hawaiʻi became a state. Workers were no longer like indentured servants and had more rights. The system that plantation managers used to keep workers separated by race began to break down, and there was more mixing of different racial groups on the plantations.
Workers started to realize they had rights. In 1920, they held the first multi-cultural strike, where workers from different backgrounds joined together. Global politics also played a big part in the decline of Hawaiian sugar. Changes in political agreements between 1902 and 1930 allowed Cuba to sell more sugar to the United States. Cuba ended up with 45% of the U.S. sugar market, while Hawaiʻi, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico shared 25%.
The "Big Five" companies slowly reduced sugar production. They found cheaper labor in places like India, South America, and the Caribbean. Instead, they focused their efforts on building a tourism industry in Hawaiʻi. The land that used to be plantations was used by these companies to build hotels and develop the tourist-based economy. This economy has been the most important part of Hawaiʻi's finances for the last 50 years.
Hawaiʻi's last working sugar mill, in Puunene, Maui, sent out its final shipment of sugar from Hawaiʻi in December 2016. The mill closed permanently soon after, and the last 375 employees of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company lost their jobs.
Images for kids
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Hawaiʻi's population by race in 1959.
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Hawaiʻi's population by race in 2005.
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The amount of land used for sugarcane in Hawaiʻi over time (in acres).
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The amount of sugarcane harvested in Hawaiʻi over time (in tons).
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As sugarcane farming decreased in Hawaiʻi, tourism grew to take its place.
See also
In Spanish: Plantaciones de azúcar en Hawái para niños
