The History of Contract Labor in the Hawaiian Islands [Paperback]

This 1903 monograph details the contract labour system in the Hawaiian sugar industry of the later nineteenth century.This 1903 monograph focuses upon the use and development of the institution of contract labour or indentured servitude in the Hawaiian sugar industry of the later nineteenth century. Along the way author Katharine Coman reveals the details of a system that in her estimation benefited both labourers and owners.This 1903 monograph focuses upon the use and development of the institution of contract labour or indentured servitude in the Hawaiian sugar industry of the later nineteenth century. Along the way author Katharine Coman reveals the details of a system that in her estimation benefited both labourers and owners.Katharine Coman (18571915) was an American historian and economist who served as professor and later dean at Wellesley College. Her works include A History of England (1899), Economic Beginnings of the Far West (1912), and this 1903 monograph. Written following a trip to the islands, the short piece focuses upon the use of imported contract labour in the form of indentured servants. Used primarily in the sugar industry, the system was, in Coman's view, one of which the results 'advance[d] the interests of the labourers quite as much as those of the planters'. The United States' distaste with such arrangements ended this status quo upon annexation, even though the wage system subsequently imposed offered fewer opportunities than before. Covering the decades during which Hawaii underwent massive changes at the hands of Western powers, Coman's work helps illuminate the multiple layers of colonial paternalism in the age of imperialism.Industrial development in the Hawaiian Islands; Modernization of native feudalism; The labor problem; Legalization of contract labor; Chinese coolies; Polynesians; State regulation; Experiments of the Board of Immigration; The Portuguese; A hunt for laborers; Opposition to the Chinese; The Japanese; Industrial efló¯