Genealogy / Polish Contract labor in Hawaii 1896 to 1899 [15]

Yes, They also played a role in which their illegal strike played in the abolition of the very ruthless contract labor law here and in the rest of the United States.

There was a Polish explorer by the name of Count Pawel Strzelecki who made a brief visit here in the early days of the Hawaiian Kingdom, in 1838.

He made a book with some of his observations with the title of "Physical Descripiton of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land".

I haven't been able to get a copy of the book but that would shed a little light on the happenings of the time.

Genealogy / Polish Contract labor in Hawaii 1896 to 1899 [15]

Good job. Thanks plk123!

Genealogy / Polish Contract labor in Hawaii 1896 to 1899 [15]

This is more things I have found out.

"The second period, 1900-1914, was a stepping up of earlier Ukrainian immigration. Most of these Ukrainians were Catholic peasants from Ruthenia, largely poor, dispossessed, and illiterate, who were brought in to work as scabs in the Pennsylvania mines around Shenandoah and Pittsburgh. As strikebreakers, they were severely resented and sometimes attacked by American workers. They were also victims of wholesale fraud that landed them in near servitude in the well-guarded bituminous mines of West Virginia and, in one case, the sugar plantations of Hawaii.

I found an author of "Polish American Studies, Vol. 39, No.1 consisting of 14 pages, entitled "Polish contract labor in Hawaii, 1896-1899. His name is Tadeusz Z. Gasinski

If anyone knows how to get in contact with him, please let me know!

Genealogy / Polish Contract labor in Hawaii 1896 to 1899 [15]

I made a rather length post, but doesnt seem to appear.

I'll keep this quick, that throughout the book, I found numerous passages of his findings exploring the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii.

Starting in the preface giving praise to the captain and name of boat he came here on.

Everything from climbing Mount Kiluea and his records surrounding Hilo bay, wind, temperature, sea currents, language, and religious customs.

Suffice it to say, that he established friendly relations between Poland and Hawaii.

Genealogy / Polish Contract labor in Hawaii 1896 to 1899 [15]

Something else I found was more protest of conditions in 1938 and I wonder how many Polish people may have been involved.

The Hilo Massacre was an incident that occurred on 1 August, 1938, in Hilo, Hawaii, when over 70 police officers attempted to disband 200 unarmed protesters during a strike, injuring 50 of the demonstrators. In their attempts to disband the crowd, officers tear gassed, hosed and finally fired their riot guns, leading to 50 injuries, but no deaths.

These protesters were multi-ethnic, including Chinese, Japanese, Native Hawaiian, Luso and Filipino Americans. In addition, the strikers were not from one single union; members of many different unions, including the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) participated. The different groups, long at odds, put aside their differences to challenge the Inter-Island Steamship Company. The unions, led by longshoreman Harry Kamoku, demanded equal wages with workers on the West Coast of the United States and closed shop or union shop.

Strikes began on 4 February, 1938, and culminated on 1 August when 200 workers gathered to protest the arrival of the SS Waialeale, a steamship owned by the Inter-Island Steamship Company. The protesters were ordered to disband, but refused to comply. Force was used, resulting in hospitalizations.

The protesters remained peaceful the vast majority of the time, sitting down and refusing to leave when confronted by any police officers.

At 10:20 AM, Lieutenant Charles Warren stabbed one of the protesters in the back with a bayonet. The police then opened fire on the crowd with both buckshot and birdshot. At least 16 rounds of ammunition were fired, and at least 50 people shot, including two women and two children.

Anyway, I wonder if anyone you know may have been involved?

Many thanks in advance.

Genealogy / Polish Contract labor in Hawaii 1896 to 1899 [15]

That really is the hard part.
In speaking with local embasy, there is record of "polish" arriving, but no record of any leaving.

Compounding the problem, is that Hawaii's archivist and historians have thus far failed to acknowledge the proper nationality of hundreds of early Polish immigrant who DID arrive in Hawaii via Germany or Austria-Hungary.

The oversight is explained by the fact that the Polish nation, partitioned at the end of the eithteenth century by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, did not officially exist at that time.

Consequetly, the Poles did not qualify as a separate entry.

In one book I read, states the "German immigrants were selected by a private firm, H. Hackfeld and Co., with more regard to their adaptability to semitropical climate and plantation work." It goes on to say that "almost 1,400 arrived from northwest Germany between 1881 and 1897 and under the paternalistic care of Kuai sugar plantation they formed a successful community, which continued their homeland customs."

The author does not find it important to inform the readers that several hundred of those "German" immigrants were infact Poles.

Passenger lists clearyly indicate that of the 83 passergers who arrived on the H.F.Glade in Honolulu on April 4th 1896, two were Germans and one was an Austrian. The remaining eighty immigrants were natives of Galicia, the Austrian portion of the partitioned Poland ( incidently, the name of that province was unfortunately confused by Hawaiian archivist with the spanish province of the same name and, accordingly, Galician Poles were later classified as "Spaniards".

I could go on, but my feeling so far is that YES some were still here, during the incidents, and really did a good thing at standing up to the "powers that be" of the time, and banded with the other ethnicities, to form a solid wall to labor oppression.

Anyone with any insight to those here during these times, please let me know.

As was later said, and chanted, "We are all one blood, under the skin!"