Approximately 385,000 immigrants came to Hawaii as contract laborers! They had to work in sugar plantations so it wasnt surprising why work was difficult. Sugar didnt boom back then, but started to when whaling died out. Sugar also boomed due to the events like the Civil War, the Reciprocity Treaty, Contract laborers, etc. The first group of contract workers were the Chinese who came in 1856. Life on the sugar plantations wasnt easy for the immigrant workers, but very harsh. To begin with, life on the sugar plantations wasnt easy because of the work they had to do. Immigrant work hours were insane. If you worked a day in the fields, youd have to work 10 hours! If you worked a day in the mills, youd have to work 12 hours! Work conditions were pretty painful. Youd have to work the day bent over if you were clearing weeds. Youd have your hands cut and blistered if you were clearing sharp leaves off the sugarcane. Numerous wasps infested the fields, so if you werent careful, youd be stung. After a long day of work, there wasnt much to do. Immigrants entertained themselves by fishing, playing cards, creating music, and dancing. In addition to the harsh work conditions, the payment for immigrants was ridiculous and unfair. Immigrant workers were paid depending on their ethnicity. The Chinese were paid $3 a month, the Japanese were paid 99c a day, and the Filipino were paid 69c a day. This means that if you were Asian, youd have the worst pay. The pay was also unfair because it didnt equal out to the amount of work they did. Immigrant workers would have to work for 10-12 hours and experience great pain just for their 99c a day, or even 69c. Plus, the workers would have to spend a lot of their money for their living. Food wasnt free. They needed to shop at plantation stores in order to get food, and water. They also spent money for entertainment (optional). People would gamble, pay to dance with women, and even to see cockfights. Finally,