Slavery | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

“Believing that the fact of our separation from the land of our birth for the work of Christ among the evangelized, does not weaken our obligation to co-operate with our brethren there, in averting the displeasure of heathen for national sins; …”

“… believing, moreover, that the field of our labors, as Christian philanthropists, ‘is the world;’ that we are solemnly commanded to do good to all men as we have opportunity; …”

“… that it is our privilege to sympathize with all who in the spirit of the gospel are making special efforts for the downtrodden slave; and especially that we cannot be guiltless if we neglect to remember those that are in bonds as bound with them; …”

“… and to seek, by all lawful means, to con’er upon all, the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty; therefore, we do hereby agree, seeking the blessing and guidance of God, to form ourselves into an Anti-Slavery Society”. (Preamble, Constitution of the Sandwich Island Anti-Slavery Society, they formed June 9, 1841)

“The object of this Society shall be to assist in the entire extermination of slavery, by our prayers to God for the release of the enslaved, and by co-operating with those who are engaged in this good work.”

Officers chosen were, Dr Thomas Lafon, President; Reverend JS Green, 1st Vice President; Reverend T Coan, 2nd Vice President, Reverend L Andrews, Recoding Secretary and Mr SN Castle, Corresponding Secretary.

The formation of the Hawaiian Anti-Slavery Society was a culmination of an early antislavery movement in Hawai‘i that was mostly concentrated between the years 1837 and 1841. (Coleman)

Early reminders of American slavery to folks in the Islands were Anthony Allen and Betsey Stockton.

Allen, a former slave, came to the Islands in 1811. Called Alani by the Native Hawaiians, Allen served as steward to Kamehameha the Great and he acquired a parcel of about six acres. He married a Hawaiian woman and had three children who survived into adulthood. (HHS)

He “resided at Waikiki, lived as comfortably, and treated us as courteously, as any who had adopted that country before our arrival.” (Hiram Bingham)

John Papa ʻĪʻī, a neighbor of Allen, in his testimony confirming rights to the land, told how Allen acquired his land: “The Allens got this land from an old high Priest – Hewa hewa. … this land was given him in the time of ‘’Kamehameha I’.” (HJH)

By 1820, Allen owned a dozen houses, “within the enclosure were his dwelling, eating and cooking houses, with many more for a numerous train of dependents. There was also a well, a garden containing principally squashes, and in one part, a sheepfold in which was one cow, several sheep, and three hundred goats.” (Sybil Bingham Journal)

In addition to his farming, Allen provided overnight accommodations – one of the earliest known hotel uses in Waikīkī. Several references note his property as a “resort.” (Hawaiʻi’s first “hotel” may be attributed to Don Francisco de Paula Marin, sometime after 1810 on Marin’s property at Honolulu Harbor.)

Reverend Charles Stewart notes of Allen’s place in his journal, “… it is a favourite resort of the more respectable of the seamen who visit Honoruru. …” With it, he had a popular bowling alley.

He entertained often and made his property available for special occasions. “King (Kauikeaouli – Kamehameha III) had a Grand Dinner at A. D. Allen’s. The company came up at sunset. Music played very late.” (Reynolds – Scruggs, HJH)

Allen died of a stroke on December 31, 1835, leaving behind a considerable fortune to his children. In tribute to Allen, Reverend John Diell noted, “The last sun of the departed year went down upon the dying bed of another man who has long resided upon the island.”

“He was a colored man, but shared, to a large extent, in the respect of this whole community. … He has been a pattern of industry and perseverance, and of care for the education of his children. … In justice to his memory, and to my own feelings, I must take this opportunity to acknowledge the many expressions of kindness which we received from him from the moment of our arrival.”

Stockton was born in 1798 in Princeton, New Jersey, as a slave owned by the family of Robert Stockton, Esq. She was presented as a gift to the Stockton’s eldest daughter and her husband, the Reverend Ashbel Green (who was later the President of Princeton College (later known as Princeton University.)) Around 1817, Ashbel Green freed her.

Stockton often spoke to Green about her wish to journey abroad, possibly to Africa, on a Christian mission. Green introduced her to Charles S Stewart, a young missionary, newly ordained in 1821, who was about to be sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to Hawaiʻi.

Through a special agreement between Green, the Stewarts and the ABCFM, Stockton joined the mission both as a domestic in the Stewart household and was commissioned by the ABCFM as a missionary. She became the first single American woman sent overseas as a missionary.

Intelligent, industrious and frugal, she was aptly described as a devoted Christian, not only because of her constant attendance at church and her faith in God, but also because she supported the interests of the church, secured clothes for her students, and helped to heal the sick while continuing her domestic work to help the Stuarts. (Jackson)

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)

Betsey Stockton set a new direction for education in the Islands. Stockton’s school was commended for its teaching proficiency, and later served as a model for the Hilo Boarding School and also for the Hampton Institute in Virginia, founded by General Samuel C. Armstrong. (Takara)

After residing in Hawaii for over two years, Betsey Stockton relocated to Cooperstown, New York, with the Stewarts. In subsequent years, she taught indigenous Canadian Indian students on Grape Island.

She later “led a movement to form the First Presbyterian Church of Colour in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1848.” In addition, between the period of 1848 to 1865, Stockton moved to Philadelphia to teach Black children.

Betsey Stockton made pioneering endeavors as a missionary in Hawaii, but her legacy is not well known. Still, Stockton’s school “set a new direction for education in the Islands … (It) served as a model for the Hilo Boarding School.”

Her teaching program have influence Samuel C Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, who also worked as a missionary in Hawaii during this period. After a full and productive life of service for the Lord, Betsey Stockton passed away in October of 1865 in Princeton, New Jersey. (Johnson)

The 1852 Constitution of the Islands noted, “Slavery shall, under no circumstances whatever, be tolerated in the Hawaiian Islands: whenever a slave shall enter Hawaiian territory he shall be free; no person who imports a slave, or slaves, into the King’s dominions shall ever enjoy any civil or political rights in this realm; but involuntary servitude for the punishment of crime is allowable according to law.”

The first shot of the American Civil War was fired at Fort Sumter off the coast of South Carolina on April 12, 1861. Almost five months later, on August 26, 1861, Kamehameha IV issued a Proclamation that, in part, stated, “hostilities are now unhappily pending between the Government of the United States, and certain States thereof styling themselves ‘The Confederate States of America.’”

With the Proclamation, the King also stated “Our neutrality between said contending parties.” The discussion of neutrality versus partisanship had to include the reality that the Hawaiian kingdom had no standing army, and most importantly, no navy to protect its harbors if supporting either the Union or Confederacy brought the other side’s vessels to threaten the principal cities of Honolulu or Lāhainā. (Illinois-edu)

Likewise, while the majority of foreigners in Hawaiʻi were Americans from New England who supported the Union cause with great fervor, leadership and advisors to the King included European ties who believed that the Confederacy would succeed in securing its independence.

King Kamehameha IV declared a neutral stance but held largely Unionist sympathies – as did the majority of people living in Hawaiʻi. (NPS)

Prior to the Civil War, whaling and related activities were the primary economic engine of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The war enabled Hawaiʻi to fill part of the void left by the absence of then-blockaded southern exports, including sugar.

Hawaiian-grown sugar soon replaced much of this southern sugar through the duration of the conflict. By the end of the war, over thirty extremely prosperous plantations were in operation and expanded to new levels previously unheard of before the war’s commencement.

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Slavery-shackles-WC

At the end of May in 1823, Keōpūolani, Nāhiʻenaʻena and Hoapili (Keōpūolani’s husband) moved to Maui and took up residence in Lāhainā.

“The queen was desirous to have missionaries to accompany her … A meeting was called to consult whether it was expedient to establish a mission at Lahaina. The mission was determined on, and Mr. S. (Stewart) was appointed to go: he chose Mr. R. (Reverend William Richards) for his companion.” (Betsey Stockton Journal)

At about the same time, whaling ships were calling at Hawaiʻi. (Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands.)

At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area. The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

Starting with Cook’s arrival, his crew and later the whalers sought and received other pleasures. The matter of sailors and Hawaiian women got more complicated in 1825, when the British whaler Daniel IV, under the command of William Buckle, made its way into Lāhainā.

Before leaving, Buckle asking that Leoiki accompany him on his cruise sent her to her chiefess, Wahinepio, with eight gold doubloons. At first hesitant, Wahinepio spoke with Buckle and then gave her OK, after he promised to bring the girl back (as well as adding two more doubloons. (Litten)

To many it appeared Wahinepio sold Leoiki, a girl of sixteen, into slavery to Captain Buckle. The money was later added to the treasures left by Liholiho, because no one was found willing to be its owner. (Thrum, 1918)

As was the practice, Richards sent his daily journal to the mission headquarters (his account of the matter later appeared in the newspapers – likewise, a new policy was established, not allowing women to board the ships at anchor.)

This brought two areas of disturbance: (1) a claim of slavery, with subsequent assertions of libel and (2) a rowdy crew expecting female companionship on board ship.

Let’s address the latter, first.

Take the scene of October, 1825. A missionary and his family are alone on the Island of Maui. The British whale ship Daniel, under Captain Buckle, arrives and comes to anchor. The crew soon find that a change has taken place. Instead of the accustomed throng of native females, not an individual of the sex approaches the ship. (Dibble)

With a law in force forbidding women to visit ships, the Captain and his crew threatened to burn Mr. Richards’ house, and to kill him and his wife. The next day fifteen sailors came ashore armed with knives and pistols and waving a black flag. By order of the chiefs the mission was surrounded by two hundred armed natives. The sailors marched up the hill with threatening mien but, seeing the array of bayonets, turned around and marched right back again. (Thrum, 1918)

The first matter of slavery claims did not go unnoticed by Kauikeaouli, King Kamehameha III. “After sitting silent a short time Boki read a manao of the king & his sister in which they express their intention to prevent any violent measure being taken against Mr. Richards, that they would condemn the one that should be proved to be in the wrong and justify the one that should prove to be in the right.” (Chamberlain)

Buckle had claimed libel against Richards for publishing the slavery claims in the papers (the story was not just mentioned in the Islands, it made the continental papers, as well.)

To this Richards replied that he had not seen the communication alluded to and that he could not make oath to any newspaper declaration & moreover that he had never written or said anything which by a fair interpretation could be construed to mean that Buckle had made a purchase for the purpose of reducing to slavery. (Chamberlain)

Supporting the ‘no sale’ situation, Leoiki (and Buckle) denied that she had been sold to Captain Buckle. (Chamberlain)

Later, Richards addressed a conciliatory letter to Buckle stating the reasons which he sent his report to the Mission Board and that he did not authorize the publication of it and that he had never supposed that Buckle had obtained the woman for the purpose of reducing her to slavery, nor did he think that by a fair interpretation that meaning could be inferred. (Chamberlain)

Buckle, feeling his reputation has been damaged, answered Richard’s letter declaring false the account of the purchase & of the riot & pronounces the whole to be a libel, and states if this were a civilized country where justice could be obtained he should bring him to the punishment which he deserved; and that even now he could demand that Richards retract what he had written and acknowledge his statements to be false. (Chamberlain)

Richard Charlton, British Consul-General, noted, “Captain Buckle could not be convicted of having bought a female slave as the inmate of his cabin.” (Bingham) The natives say Mr. Richards is to be put to death for falsely accusing Buckle. (Chamberlain)

While the transfer of funds raised the suspicion of many that Leoiki was sold into slavery, some suggest the payment was simply the traditional payment of dowry. (While we sometimes limit the context of ‘dowry’ to the property a woman brings to a marriage; it can also mean money given by the groom to the family of the bride.)

Then, on December 26, 1827, the Daniel IV, under the command of Captain Buckle, left Lāhainā. “The departure of this captain who has been the occasion of so much trouble to the mission gave us no small comfort. She sail’d in company with the Elizabeth Capt. Stewart. We were happy to see both vessels steer directly off without altering their course.” (Chamberlain)

A meeting of the chiefs followed. There, they agreed to close the subject. The meeting did, however, proclaim three general laws: those against murder, adultery and theft. (Litten)

There is another tangential end to this story. On February 5, 1826 (very much in the middle of the above timeframe,) William Wahinepio Buckle was born to Buckle and Leoiki (apparently born while they were at sea.)

The Māhele documents show that Leoiki was given five lands on three islands; she also received title to the land Captain Buckle bought for their home in downtown Honolulu: both definite indications that she was still considered an Aliʻi. (Creed, waihona)

William Wahinepio Buckle later was a member of King Kalākaua’s Privy Council. His daughter, Jane Kahakuwaiaoao Keakahiwalani Buckle Clark, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Liliʻuokalani.

Some of the Buckle descendants are buried in the Honolulu Catholic Cemetery on King Street.

(The image shows some of their headstones there.) In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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