What did plantation owners in Hawaii want to do?
Hawaiian plantations were in operation beginning in the 1800s,
and some continued through the mid-1900s; the main product was
sugarcane, but there were also pineapple plantations. The
plantation owners wanted to be in total control of the production,
as their goal was to make bigger profits. These owners were few in
number (five powerful families dominated the sugarcane
plantations), but they were very influential in Hawaii's politics
and were able to negotiate favorable arrangements that kept prices
high and wages low.
The plantation owners imported mostly foreign workers, since it
was believed that foreigners would do the work cheaply. But many of
the foreigners (who came from China, Japan, Korea, and the
Philippines) found that plantation work was hard and they were
treated like slaves or indentured servants. What is ironic is that
the majority of the plantation owners came from missionary
families, yet when they became successful in business, they often
did not treat their workers fairly, which led to problems many
years later.