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Bound for slavery? A Quaker humanitarian critique of waged labour at Koloa Plantation, Hawaii, 1836
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 18:18 authored by Peyper, AThe humanitarian testimonials of the “concerned travellers,” Quakers Daniel and Charles Wheeler, from Koloa Plantation on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai in June 1836, problematised the early years of the sugar plantation’s wage labour system. Although the newly introduced wage system was intended by the resident missionaries and the founding company to liberate the plantation labourers from existing feudal obligations, the Wheelers claimed a different form of “slavery” was being imposed on the indigenous Hawaiians employed within the new system. Produced in a climate of protectionist and abolitionist fervour in the mid-1830s “age of reform,” the Quaker humanitarian publications reflected wider contemporary concerns for indigenous populations and post-British emancipation labour conditions. Through examination of the Wheelers’ critique of Koloa in the formative years of Hawaii’s foreign-owned sugar plantation system, this article contributes a new perspective on the critical question of whether earning wages under the conditions at Kauai in 1836 excluded the Koloa Plantation labourer from slavery.
Funding
Australian Research Council
History
Publication title
Labour HistoryVolume
113Issue
November 2017Pagination
79-102ISSN
0023-6942Department/School
School of HumanitiesPublisher
Australian Society for the Study of Labour HistoryPlace of publication
AustraliaRights statement
Copyright 2017 Australian Society for the Study of Labour HistoryRepository Status
- Restricted