Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Kapu and the New Religion

The kapu supported Hawai‘i’s social and political structure and directed every activity of Hawaiian life, from birth through death. The kapu system helped the ali‘i and kahuna keep their power over the people. The people believed that breaking the kapu would bring the anger of the gods on themselves and their community. They made every effort to follow the kapu set down by the ali‘i and kahuna. With the kapu, if you didn’t follow the rules, you could die. While the social order defined very strict societal rules, exoneration was possible if one could reach a puʻuhonua (place of refuge) and be cleansed, as well as cleared by a kahuna (priest). Shortly after the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, King Kamehameha II (Liholiho) declared an end to the kapu system.

This changed the course of the social, political and religious structure and ended the kapu system, effectively weakened belief in the power of the gods and the inevitability of divine punishment for those who opposed them. Some have suggested it was the missionaries that ended the kapu that disrupted the social/political system in the Islands; that is not true, they arrived in 1820. The Mission Prudential Committee in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said: “Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high. You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.” With Christianity, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

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Ordination of Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston

“Of the Sandwich Islands’ mission, Goshen (CT) may not improperly be said to be the birthplace.” “It was on September 29, 1819, that people interested in the starting of the Sandwich Island mission gathered in the Goshen Congregational church to witness the ordination of Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston. The day of the Ordination was lovely, as Dr. A. C. Thompson says, ‘Never did the sun look down more brilliantly on our ample woodlands and our little lakes.’ Many strangers came to witness the inspiring scene, and the homes of all the old families of Goshen were hospitably thrown open to receive these guests.”

“Within two weeks after the ordination in Goshen, the missionary company assembled in Boston, to receive their instructions and embark. There, in the vestry of Park Street Church, under the counsels of the officers of the Board, Dr. S. Worcester, Dr. J. Morse, J. Evarts, Esq., and others, the little pioneer band was, on the 15th of Oct., 1819, organized into a Church for transplantation. The members renewed their covenant, and publicly subscribed with their hands unto the Lord, and united in a joyful song.’ (O Happy Day That Fixed My Choice)”

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Pua‘aiki

The Pioneer Company of missionaries arrived in the Islands “early found among the thousands of their degraded inhabitants, a poor blind man, almost destitute of clothing, habitation, and friends. He was born at Waikapu … probably about the year 1785.” “He is poor and despised in his person, small almost to deformity; and in his countenance, from the loss of sight, not prepossessing. Still, in our judgment he bears on him the image and superscription of Christ; and if so, how striking an example of the truth of the Apostle’s declaration …”

“Having a shagged head of black hair, unshielded by a hat from tropical suns and showers, and, at middle age, a beard growing at full length under the chin, the rest being plucked out, he roamed shoeless, without moral or mental culture, without hope, and without a Saviour.” “His name is on heavenly records, and it is familiar to the ear of Protestant Christendom, as the Blind Hawaiian Preacher, or Bartimeus L Pua‘aiki.” “Residing chiefly at Wailuku for some two years, he itinerated and preached at many villages around the island, generally about three Sabbaths in a month at out-stations from five to twenty miles distant. … on Sabbath evening, September 17, 1843, he surrendered his liberated spirit into his gracious hands.”

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Keōpūolani Baptism

On the arrival of the American missionaries in April 1820, all the chiefs were consulted respecting the expediency of their establishment in the islands. Some of the chiefs seemed to doubt; but Keōpūolani without hesitation approved their proposals. Keōpūolani welcomed them. As the highest ranking ali‘i of her time, her embracing of Christianity set a crucial seal of approval on the missionaries and their god. Later, she was very ill and returned to Lahaina (May 31, 1823), asking missionaries to join her.

Immediately on their arrival, she requested them to commence teaching, and said, also, “It is very proper that my sons (meaning the missionaries) be present with me at morning and evening prayers.” On the last week in August, Keōpūolani had a premonition of her approaching death. She was baptized by William Ellis and died shortly thereafter (September 16, 1823). Keōpūolani is said to have been the first convert of the missionaries in the islands and the first to receive a Protestant baptism. (Kalanimōku and Boki had previously (1819) been baptized by the French Catholics. Kalanimōku later (1825) joined the Protestant Church, at the same time as Ka‘ahumanu.)

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Holy Ghost Catholic Church

Portuguese began arriving in Hawai‘i in large numbers to work on plantations in 1879. Many continued to be employed by the plantations even after their contracts had been fulfilled. Others, however, sought to take up independent work and on Maui turned especially to farming and ranching. The middle slope of Haleakala is an exceptionally fertile region and many people of Portuguese ancestry settled here, some homesteading the land.

Before long, this growing Catholic community felt the need for a priest. In 1882 James Beissel, a priest from Prussia, was assigned to Makawao, and his district extended from Ulupalakua around to Huelo. At some time between 1894-1897, he designed the Holy Ghost Church in Kula and supervised its construction (the only known nineteenth-century octagonal-shaped building in Hawai‘i). The two acres of land on which it was built were donated by Louis and Randal von Tempsky in Waiakoa, and the building was financed by weekly auctions of cattle by local ranchers.