Kamehameha II | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

Tamehameha_2d,_His_Majesty_the_King_of_the_Sandwich_Islands,_drawn_on_stone_from_life_by_John_Hayter-1824

Liholiho Letter to ABCFM – March 18, 1823-1

Liholiho Letter to ABCFM – March 18, 1823-2

January 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kalākua

“Kalākua, a widow of Kamehameha … asked (the missionary women) to make a gown for her in fashion like their own.” (Bingham) “(She) was told that it was the Lord’s day, and that they would make it tomorrow.” (April 2, 1820, Thaddeus Journal)

The next day, the first Hawaiian sewing circle was held on the decks of the Thaddeus, “Kalākua brought a web of white cambric to have a dress made for herself in the fashion of our ladies, and was very particular in her wish to have it finished while sailing along the western side of the island, before reaching the king.”

“Monday morning April 3d (1820,) the first sewing circle was formed that the sun ever looked down upon in the Hawaiian realm. Kalākua was directress. She requested all the seven white ladies to take seats with them on mats, on the deck of the Thaddeus.”

“The dress was made in the fashion of 1819. The length of the skirt accorded with Brigham Young’s rule to his Mormon damsels, – have it come down to the tops of the shoes. But in the queen’s case, where the shoes were wanting, the bare feet cropped out very prominently.” (Lucy Thurston, part of the Pioneer Company)

Kalākua (also Kaheiheimālie) (c. 1778–1842) was daughter of Keʻeaumoku, a chief from Hawaiʻi Island and Namahana, from the royal family on Maui. She was described as physically being ‘tall and gigantic,’ like her siblings. (Bingham)

“(Kalākua) was never a woman to indulge in flirtations, and her name was never coupled with gossip. She may have had her longings, but she remained true to her husband; and her children were never rumored to have been born of a double paternity like so many of the chiefs.”

“Double paternity was considered an honor because it gave a double or triple line of chiefly descent, thick and intermingled, and formed an honorable ancestry doubly blessed in such riches and knowledge as chiefs desire.”

“Not so (Kalākua,) who considered herself sufficiently honored with the root already established. Kamehameha was her uncle, and both he and Keʻeaumoku were directly descended from Haʻae.” (Kamakau)

Kalākua’s siblings included Queen Kaʻahumanu, Hawaiʻi Island Governor John Adams Kuakini, Maui Governor George Cox Kahekili Keʻeaumoku II and Lydia Namahana Piʻia. She first married Kalaʻimamahu, the younger brother of Kamehameha I.

They had a daughter, Kekāuluohi; Kekāuluohi became Kamehameha’s youngest wife. Liholiho (Kamehameha II) later took her as one of his wives and around 1821 Kamehameha II gave Kekāuluohi to his friend Charles Kanaʻina. By Kanaʻina, Kekāuluohi had a son William Charles Lunalilo (future king of the Islands.)

Kekāuluohi succeeded her half-sister Kīnaʻu as Kuhina Nui. Initially, she was considered something of a “place-holder” for Kīnaʻu’s infant daughter Victoria Kamāmalu, who would later assume the office. (Archives)

With Kamehameha I, Kalākua had four children: their two sons died as infants; the oldest daughter, Kamāmalu, became wife of Liholiho (Kamehameha II,) and the youngest daughter, Kīnaʻu, later became Kuhina Nui.

Kīnaʻu later married Mataio Kekūanāoʻa; they had several children, including Lot Kapuāiwa (afterwards Kamehameha V,) Alexander Liholiho (afterwards Kamehameha IV) and Victoria. (Liliʻuokalani) That made Kalākua mother of another Queen consort, and grandmother of three future Kings.

“The death of Kamehameha made the first separation from the man she had lived with for twenty years. There was no woman of his household whom Kamehameha loved so much as (Kalākua.)”

“Kamehameha is never known to have deserted (Kalākua,) but it has often been said that she did not love him so much as her first husband Kalaʻimamahu from whom Kamehameha took her away.” (Kamakau)

“In September, 1823, she heard in Hawaii of Keōpūolani’s death and sailed at once for Lāhainā to attend the burial ceremonies. The chiefs had all assembled at Lāhainā, the body of the chiefess had been concealed, and (Hoapili) was in mourning.”

“After the days of mourning were ended (Kalākua) became the wife of (Hoapili) (October 19, 1823,) they became converted, were married under Christian vows, and took the names of Hoapili-kāne and Mary Hoapili-wahine [the Hawaiian form of Mr. and Mrs.]”

“At this time she had not thought much about religion. The chiefs took to drinking and sensual indulgence after the death of the chiefess [Keōpūolani], but (Kalākua) listened to the word of God as taught by the missionaries although in her heart she still enjoyed life and fun.”

“Hoapili had accepted the word of God because of Keōpūolani. (Kalākua) turned to Christianity first, and Kaʻahumanu followed.” (Kamakau)

In 1823, Kalākua (Kaheiheimālie and Hoapili-wahine) offered the American missionaries a tract of land on the slopes surrounding Puʻu Paʻupaʻu for the creation of a school.

Betsey Stockton founded a school for makaʻāinana (common people) including the women and children. The site of the school is now Lahainaluna School.

A good work for which Hoapili-kāne is celebrated was the building of the church at Waineʻe; the cornerstone was laid on September 14, 1828, for this ‘first stone meeting-house built at the Islands.’

It was dedicated on March 4, 1832 and served as the church for Hawaiian royalty during the time when Lāhainā was effectively the Kingdom’s capital, from the 1820s through the mid-1840s (it was destroyed by fire in 1894.) In addition, he erected the Lāhainā fort to guard the village against rioting from the whalers off foreign ships and from law breakers. (Kamakau)

When Lot Kapuāiwa was born to Mataio Kekūanāoʻa and Kīnaʻu, he was hānai by his grandmother Kalākua (Kaheiheimālie and Hoapili-wahine) and step-grandfather Hoapili-kāne. (Lot Kapuāiwa later became King Kamehameha V.) Kalākua died January 16, 1842 and is buried at Waine‘e (now Waiola) Cemetery.

Hoapiliwahine_by_C._C._Armstrong

November 29, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Timeline Tuesday … 1820s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1820s – arrival of the missionaries (Protestant & Catholic,) death of Keōpūolani, Liholiho and Kamāmalu. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

November 13, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

He Aupuni Palapala Ko‘u

E nā ali‘i a me nā maka‘āinana,
he aupuni palapala ko‘u,
a ‘o ke kanaka pono a na‘auao,
‘o ia ko‘u kanaka.

To all ali‘i and commoners alike,
mine is a literate country,
and the just and intelligent man
is my countryman.
(Kauikeaouli – Kamehameha III;
Nūpepa Kū‘oko‘a (May 23, 1868;) Puette)

Hawaiian was a spoken language but not a written language. Historical accounts were passed down orally, through chants and songs. After western contact and attempts to write about Hawai‘i, early writers tried to spell words based on the sound of the words they heard. People heard words differently, so it was not uncommon for words to be spelled differently, depending on the writer.

The planning for the formal written Hawaiian language in the early part of the nineteenth century was started by the American Protestant missionaries who arrived in Hawaii, starting in 1820. A committee of some of these missionaries (Hiram Bingham, CS Stewart and Levi Chamberlain) worked on the development of the Hawaiian alphabet.

Initially, the missionaries worked out a Hawaiian alphabet of 17-English letters. “On the 7th of January, 1822, a year and eight months from the time of our receiving the governmental permission to enter the field and teach the people …”

“… we commenced printing the language in order to give them letters, libraries, and the living oracles in their own tongue, that the nation might read and understand the wonderful works of God.”

Then, on July 14, 1826, the missionaries established a 12-letter alphabet for the written Hawaiian language, using five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p and w) in their “Report of the committee of health on the state of the Hawaiian language.” The report was signed by Bingham and Chamberlain. The alphabet continues in use today.

Early on, the Chiefs saw the opportunity and in collaboration with the missionaries, first the chiefs, then the makaʻāinana were taught the alphabet, and how to read and write.

Sybil Moseley Bingham, wife of Hiram Bingham, leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM,) is said to have started the first school in Hawaiʻi in May 1820. (“… Sybil Moseley Bingham, opened the first school in this city in May, 1820, surely an historic date.” (Hiram Bingham II)

Sybil’s June 20, 1820 journal entry notes, “After neglect of my journal for more than two months in a most interesting part of our history too … Very soon I gathered up 12 or 15 little native girls to come once a day to the house so that as early as possible the business of instruction might be commenced. That was an interesting day to me to lay the foundation of the first school ever assembled in this dark land.”

June 21st. “The most which has interested me to-day has been my little school. To see the little things so ready to learn, and so busy with their needles, is very pleasant. I long to know more of their language, that I might be pouring into their tender minds more instruction than ab.”

Learning to read and write had already been on Liholiho’s mind, well before he travelled to England. In 1820, missionary Lucy Thurston noted in her Journal, Liholiho’s desire to learn.

“The king (Liholiho, Kamehameha II) brought two young men to Mr. Thurston, and said: ‘Teach these, my favorites, (John Papa) Ii and (James) Kahuhu. It will be the same as teaching me. Through them I shall find out what learning is.’”

Betsey Stockton, a former slave and then missionary with the American mission, was on the 2nd Company of missionaries and was sent to Maui. “Mr. Richards and myself have an island with 20,000 inhabitants committed to our spiritual care – a solemn – a most responsible charge!” (Stewart)

“It was there, as (Betsey said,) that she opened a school for the common people which was certainly the first of the kind in Maui and probably the first in all Hawai‘i; for at the beginning the missionaries were chiefly engaged in the instructions of the chiefs and their families.” (Maui News, May 5, 1906)

Stockton has asked the mission to allow her “to create a school for the makaʻāinana (common people.) Stockton learned the Hawaiian Language and established a school in Maui where she taught English, Latin, History and Algebra. (Kealoha)

“It shows that a sincere desire to accomplish a good purpose need not be thwarted by other necessary engagements, however humble or exacting.” (Maui News, May 5, 1906)

Britain’s King George encouraged Hawaiians to read and write, and noted that the American preachers/teachers could help them. “If you wish to have me for your friend, you and your people must all read and write. If you do not attend to instruction, I shall not be your friend.” (King George of England to Boki, 1824)

Boki asked him whether preachers are good men, and the King said, “Yes, and they are men to make others good. I always have some of them by me; for chiefs are not wise like them.”

“We in England were once like the people in your islands; but this kind of teachers came and taught our fathers, and now you see what we are.”

“You and your people must take good heed to the missionaries; for they were sent to enlighten you and do you good. They came not for secular purposes, but by a divine command, to teach you the word of God. The people would therefore all do well to attend to instruction, and to forsake stealing, drunkenness, war, and every thing evil, and to live in peace.” (ABCFM Annual Report, 1826)

On June 6, 1825, Kauikeaouli was proclaimed king of Hawaiʻi. To the people he said, “‘Where are you, chiefs, guardians, commoners? I greet you. Hear what I say! My kingdom I give to God. The righteous chief shall be my chief, the children of the commoners who do you right shall be my people, my kingdom shall be one of letters.’ Kaʻahumanu and Kalanimōku encouraged this attitude of the king and declared to the people their trust in God.” (Ka Nupepa Kuʻokoʻa, February 22, 1868; Kamakau)

On August 23, 1836, 15-Chiefs (Kamehameha III, Nahiʻenaʻena, Hoapili, Na Malia Hoapili, Kuakini, Kīnaʻu, Kekāuluohi, Paki, Liliha, ʻAikanaka, Leleiōhoku, Kekūanāoʻa, Kanaʻina, Kekauōnohi and Keliʻiahonui) sent a letter to the American missionaries, asking that more American teachers be sent to the Islands.

“We hereby take the liberty to express our views as to what is necessary for the prosperity of these Sandwich Islands. Will you please send to us additional teachers to those you have already sent, of such character as you employ in your own country in America?”

“Should you send the above mentioned teachers, we promise to protect them, and afford them all the facilities for carrying on their work, which are in our power.”

Shortly after, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) sent the largest company of missionaries to the Islands, that included a large number of teachers. The Eighth Company left Boston December 14, 1836 and arrived at Honolulu, April 9, 1837 on the Mary Frasier from Boston.

The missionaries were asked by the King to teach and care for the next generation of the highest ranking chiefs’ children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaiʻi’s Kingdom.

“We ask Mr. Cooke to be teacher for our royal children. He is the teacher of our royal children and Dr. Judd is the one to take care of the royal children because we two hold Dr. Judd as necessary for the children and also in certain difficulties between us and you all.” (signed by Kamehameha III, Hoapili Wahine and Kekāuluohi)

This resulted in the formation of O‘ahu’s first school, the Chiefs’ Children’s School (The Royal School.) Seven families were eligible under succession laws stated in the 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i; Kamehameha III called on seven boys and seven girls to board in the Chiefs’ Children’s School.

By 1831, in just eleven years from the first arrival of the American missionaries, Hawaiians had built over 1,100-schoolhouses. This covered every district throughout the eight major islands and serviced an estimated 53,000-students. (Laimana)

The proliferation of schoolhouses was augmented by the missionaries printing of 140,000-copies of the pī¬ʻāpā (elementary Hawaiian spelling book) by 1829 and the staffing of the schools with 1,000-plus Hawaiian teachers. (Laimana)

Through the collaboration between the Hawaiian Chiefs and the American missionaries, by 1832, the literacy rate of Hawaiians (at the time was 78 percent) had surpassed that of Americans on the continent. The literacy rate of the adult Hawaiian population skyrocketed from near zero in 1820 to a conservative estimate of 91 percent – and perhaps as high as 95 percent – by 1834. (Laimana)

From 1820 to 1832, in which Hawaiian literacy grew by 91 percent, the literacy rate on the US continent grew by only 6 percent and did not exceed the 90 percent level until 1902 – three hundred years after the first settlers landed in Jamestown. By way of comparison, it is significant that overall European literacy rates in 1850 had not risen much above 50 percent. (Laimana)

Hawaiian Alphabet

July 9, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“This does not look like me”

“In the year of our Lord, 1809, some Hawaiian youths went to America. The captain of their ship took them to New Haven, Conn., to be educated; and afterwards, in 1816, a school was established in Cornwall, Conn., for the education of youths from heathen lands.”

“There, among Indians, Tahitians, and scholars from other places, were some Hawaiian boys (Obookaiah (ʻOpukahaʻia,) Hopu, Honolii) – nine of them in all.”

“These all embraced the Christian faith, and Obookaiah was very anxious that messengers be sent to take to Hawaii the word of God. He intended himself to come back, but he was cut down by the angel of death before he had completed his education.”

“But the voice of God came to Messrs. Bingham, Thurston, and Whitney and others, and in the year 1819 they and their wives sailed from Boston on the small two-masted vessel named the Thaddeus.”

“On this vessel came Thomas Hopu, John Honoliʻi, and George Kaumualiʻi, the son of Kaumualiʻi, the king of Kauai. They reached Hawaii on the 30th of March, 1820.”

“When the boat which they had sent to a landing on the Kohala coast, returned to the vessel, these were the tidings given to the missionaries: ‘Kamehameha is dead; his son Liholiho is king. The tabus are at an end; the idols are burned; the temples are destroyed.’”

“In this the hand of God was seen preparing for the introduction of his word among the people. The vessel sailed to Kailua, and the chiefs went on board to see the missionaries and their wives – the ‘long necks’ as they were called.”

“This was the dress of Liholiho when he went to see white women for the first time: A malo, a green silk handkerchief over his shoulders, a gold watch-chain about his neck, and a feather wreath on his head – no clothing.”

“After much discussion, and with a good deal of hesitation, Liholiho consented that the teachers should remain one year.”

“Mr Bingham was stationed at Honolulu, Mr Whitney at Waimea, Kauai, and Mr Thurston at Kailua, Hawaii, where the king and chiefs resided; and the king placed John Ii and Kahuhu with Mr. Thurston to be taught reading, and said that if it did them no harm, he also would learn the ‘palapala’ (writing.)”

“There was no writing in Hawaiian in those days – no books or newspapers.”

“Liholiho asked that his name be written. The missionary wrote it, ‘Li-ho-li-ho.’”

“Liholiho looked at it long and steady, and then said: ‘This does not look like me, nor any other man.’” (AF Judd, Bible Society Record, October 17, 1889)

In 1820, missionary Lucy Thurston noted in her Journal, Liholiho’s desire to learn, “The king (Liholiho, Kamehameha II) brought two young men to Mr. Thurston, and said: ‘Teach these, my favorites, (John Papa) Ii and (James) Kahuhu. It will be the same as teaching me. Through them I shall find out what learning is.’”

“Immediately upon their arrival the missionaries began to converse with the people in the Hawaiian language, and upon them fell the honor of first writing the mother-tongue of Hawaiʻi with pen and ink upon paper.”

“To reduce the language to writing was their first work, in order that the word of God might thus reach the hearts of the Hawaiian people to the saving of their souls.”

“Within three years from the time when Messrs. Bingham, Thurston, and Whitney touched their feet on Hawaiian shores, Liholiho and Kauikeaouli (Liholiho’s younger brother) had learned to read and write, and also twelve other chiefs and twelve chiefesses.”

“This was quick work. That year (1823) the king ordered the observance of the Christian Sabbath, and the missionaries began to preach in the Hawaiian tongue. Before this their addresses had been interpreted by Hopu, Honolii, and others.” (AF Judd, Bible Society Record, October 17, 1889)

Interestingly, as the early missionaries learned the Hawaiian language, they then taught their lessons in the mission schools in Hawaiian, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians.

“By 1850, even though the Missionary Schools wanted to continue Hawaiian as the language of instruction in order to preserve the Hawaiian nation, the non-religious educators, both foreign and Hawaiian, wanted to and did discard Hawaiian as the language of instruction in the schools.” (Ashdown)

The missionaries’ emphasis was on preaching and teaching – in many of the mission schools the focus was educating the head, heart and hand. In addition to the rigorous academic drills (Head,) the schools provided religious/moral (Heart) and manual/vocational (Hand) training.

This broad-based, inclusive form of educational training can also be seen back in the Foreign Mission School, where ʻŌpūkahaʻia and others were taught.

The image shows the later signature of Liholiho (Kamehameha II – ‘Tamehameha.’)