Sweet and Sour Sugar

You are a time traveler and a maker of history.  The history that you are about to make will determine your future.  Think about that.  Talk about that.  Just don't forget that because those who forget the past, much less never learn about it, are indeed destined to relive it. 

The time is the late 1800's.  Electricity and the light bulb are yet to replace the candle and the oil lamp.  There are no automobiles, only horse-drawn wagons.  The refrigerator hasn't been invented yet, but some people have iceboxes.  There are no telephones, only the telegraph.  Television is yet to even be conceived of, and the flush toilet has yet to replace the outhouse's holes in the ground.     

You have just completed a long and tiring voyage across the expansive Pacific Ocean and arrived on the main Hawaiian island of Oahu.  You have left behind everyone and everything that you have ever cared about because you were trying to build a better life for yourself and your family. Back in your home country, you signed a contract to work on a sugar plantation in the old Kingdom of Hawaii.  You have great expectations and a tremendous hope for the future, but now you come face to face with the realities of life on a sugar plantation.

The Hawaii Plantation Village (http://www.hawaiiplantationvillage.org/), which is located on the island of Oahu, invites students to its village to research and experience what life was like in old Hawaii.  This Webquest asks you:

What was life like back then? 

How did Hawaii become the harmonious multi-ethnic society that it is? 

This three part unit will research and investigate the following questions:

1) What do you think it's like to be so far from home and everyone whom you've ever known?  Keep in mind that the mail system took months to deliver a letter and mail was frequencly lost.

2) How do you feel about working extremely long hours while wondering if you will ever have enough money to return home because you are not able to save any money?  You are restricted to the plantation.  You are limited to the money that you can make there, which is never enough.  Worse still, you can not work a different or second job in town. 

3) You have been transported to a time when television, cell phones, refrigerators, and cars do not exist.  Running water and flushing toilets are luxuries of the future.  If you want to cook, or even take a hot bath, you need to gather wood for a fire. Think about that. Talk about that. Can you even imagine how much time it took to do many of the daily tasks that are simple and take only minutes in the 21st century, but require much time and effort for you now that you have gone back ini time to the 19th century?

Hawaiians on the plantation:

http://www.coffeetimes.com/plantation.htm

Timeline of Filipino Migration to Hawaii:

http://www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/about/filipino-immigration.htm

Chinese Immigration to Hawaii:

http://www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/about/chinese-immigration.htm

Korean Immigration to Hawaii:

http://www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/about/korean-immigration.htm

Japanese Migration to Hawaii:

http://www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/about/japanese-immigration.htm

Puerto Rican Migration to Hawaii: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_immigration_to_Hawaii