6. Descriptions of the Collections


Over the course of the phase 2 project, the University of Florida, in cooperation with other libraries in the
state, will preserve and improve access to 603 titles in 1,841 volumes important to the study of agriculture
and rural life in Florida and the Southeast. These volumes were selected for preservation from a
comprehensive bibliography of 3500 volumes identified during the 1996/97 phase 1 project supported
by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The phase 1 project employed a three-person scholarly
review to rank the titles according to their priority as research resources for humanities studies. Details of
Florida's phase 2 project staffing and costs are found in Section 5.4 of the proposal's Plan of Work.


6.5 HAWAI'I


 Like thousands of others, my grandparents migrated from Japan as sugarcane laborers at the turn
 of the century. They were searching for a new and better life for themselves and their family.
 The sugar plantations also brought Chinese immigrants, followed by Portuguese and Filipinos.
 To a very large degree, these plantations helped create the diversity in our society which makes
 Hawai'i a unique and special place to live."

 --Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Report to Hawai'i, May 1992

 For well over a century, the plantation system that centered around sugarcane and pineapple cultivation,
 dominated agriculture and rural life in Hawai'i. The social fabric of the islands was transformed by the
 cultures and aspirations of immigrant workers who settled in the islands, interweaving their own traditions
 with the Native Hawaiian culture.

 Native Hawaiian agriculture sustained a large population, estimated to have been between 250,000 and
 400,000 when Captain James Cook arrived in the islands in 1778. Hawaiians traditionally cultivated a
 variety of crops from the shoreline to mountains in pie-shaped land divisions know as ahupua'a. They
 grew bananas, breadfruit, and ferns in the mountains and planted wet and dry land taro and sweet
 potatoes in the valleys. Man-made ponds ringed the shorelines for the cultivation of fish and turtles.

 Epidemic diseases introduced into the Kingdom of Hawai'i by Westerners devastated the Native Hawaiian
 population. By 1853, the population had dwindled to 79,600. Many Hawaiians moved to Honolulu to
 find work and fewer than 20% percent lived in rural areas. Although Hawai'i was not exactly a "widowed
 land," emptied of its indigenous people and traditions it was a wounded and vulnerable land. Land
 reform, the Mahele, in 1848, changed traditional laws and made way for foreigners to own land. This
 pivotal event enabled the development of large sugar plantations and the shift from traditional Native
 Hawaiian crops.

 The sugar industry was the major vehicle of change in Hawai'i's sovereignty, politics, economics, and
 lifestyle. Sugar was introduced as a commercial crop in the Kingdom in 1835. By the 1860s, it was a
 flourishing industry. Cane processing plants constructed in rural communities throughout the islands
 literally changed every aspect of life. The salty fragrance of the sea was replaced by the thick smell of
 molasses; the roaring of the waves pounding the shoreline was drowned out by steam engines and mill
 machinery; and land and water were diverted from traditional taro patches to large plantation fields
 linked to the mills by narrow gauge railroads.

 City directories organized island-by-island provided an annual summary of the agricultural and
 economic activities of the plantations and rural communities that sustained them. These scarce resources
 are invaluable for researchers. Thrum's Hawaiian Almanac and Annual (1875-1940) is another critical
 resource for statistics, and contains articles describing agriculture and rural life.