Short Story Letters

Plantation Worker
Recovered by Dylan Gera
(Letter one)

3 Lani Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
6/12/22

Mr. Zachariah Jefferson
64 Kaipono Lane
Ewa, Hawaii

Dear Mr. Jefferson,

I would first like to thank you for giving up your time to read my letter, it means much to me. My name is Gordon Freeman and I am a representative from the newly formed Honolulu Plantation Workers Guild. It has been brought to our attention that certain actions have been taken against the Filipino workers on your plantation by the, largely Portuguese, overseers. According to several Filipino workers who have contacted us, the overseers have used whips multiple times on the workers and have used racial slurs frequently. This treatment of the workers is unfair and they do not deserve such racial cruelty.
The Filipino workers are an important part of the Hawaii plantation industry and without them the economy would suffer greatly. The Filipinos are one of the biggest worker groups we have here in Hawaii and we must treat them with respect. If the Filipinos didn’t come over during the Japanese strikes we would have had a severe drop in sugar cane production during the early 1900s and thus a dip in our economy. As manager of the Ewa plantation it is your responsibility to tell your overseers to behave much better towards their workers.

Sincerely,
G. Freeman
Co-President Honolulu Workers Guild








(Letter two)

64 Kaipono Lane
Ewa, Hawaii
6/14/10

Mr. Gordon Freeman
3 Lani Street
Honolulu, Hawaii

Dear Mr. Freeman,

I would like to thank you for taking the time to send me your and the Guild’s opinion. However I will have to refrain from doing as you wish as I feel that the overseer’s conduct, while occasionally out of turn, is necessary to get the usually lazy workers to cooperate. The workers have a better life here then they would back home. Here they get paid more than they would elsewhere and receive free living arrangements and meals. I fully support the lunas decisions to do whatever it takes to get the Filipino workers motivated.
While the Filipinos have contributed much to the plantation business (essentially saving the plantation economy from dipping when they acted as scab workers in exchange for the Japanese) I have found them to be exceptionally lazy. None of the workers have suffered severe injury so no real harm was done. Besides, we are exceeding in our gross crop yield and that all that really matters.

Sincerely,
Zachariah Jefferson
Plantation Manager Ewa Sugar Cane Plantation