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February 4, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Built in About an Hour

The Hawaiian Islands were formed as the Pacific Plate moved westward over a geologic hot spot.  Oʻahu is dominated by two large shield volcanoes, Waiʻanae and Koʻolau that range in age from two to four-million years old.

The younger volcanic craters are all less than 500,000 years old. They formed after Oʻahu had moved well off the hot spot and the main shield volcanoes had gone dormant for at least two-million years.

Scientists say Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) (one of these later eruptions) is a tuff cone, formed by hydromagmatic activity.  Tuff is a volcanic rock made up of a mixture of volcanic rock and mineral fragments. Wherever there are explosive volcanic eruptions you can expect to find tuff.  (SOEST)

A hundred years ago, Hawaiʻi missionary Reverend Sereno Bishop noted Diamond Head was made in less than an hour’s time and is “composed not of lava, like the main mountain mass inland, but of this soft brown rock called tuff.” (Bishop, Commercial Advertiser, July 15, 1901)

Others noted, “the duration of eruption of Diamond Head was of the order of five hours. The eruption may have been intermittent with interruptions sufficient to extend the whole period of activity to as much as five days, but probably not more.”    (Wentworth, Bishop Museum, 1926)

“Volcanic eruptions may be distinguished into two classes, the effusive and the explosive. In the former the molten rock is poured out and covers the mountain slopes with great floods.”

“If you look up at the sides of yonder ravines (on the Koʻolau mountains,) which the rainstorms of many hundred thousands of years have worn out of the original dome-shaped mountain, you will see the back edges of the ancient lava streams lying in layers.”

“The tuff cones are entirely different, and are produced by very brief and sudden explosive eruptions.  The tuff was violently shot high aloft into the air in the form of superheated mud. This hot mud cooled and thickened by the expansion of its water and its partial escape as steam before reaching the ground.”

“It hardened and cemented as it fell, though still liquid enough to form in thin layers or laminations as we see it lying around us at the base of the hill. … The tuff-fountain escaping from its confinement, at once expanded and spread out like a vast tree.”

“Here at Diamond Head, which is one mile in diameter, the bulk of the mud spread out half a mile in all directions before ending its fall. Thus a very exact circular ring was piled up of one mile in diameter. There was, however, another influence, that of a violent easterly-wind which deflected the entire fountain westward”.

“The wind also acted with especial force upon the highest part of the fountain, flinging and piling it up on the western side of the crater in a lofty cone. A large part of that cone has been weathered away by the impact of rainstorms upon the soft rock; but it still stands in a peak some 200 feet higher than the main run.”

“The vent or point of issue of the tuff-fountain must have been at the lowest point of the interior, where lies the present pond of water.”  (Bishop, Commercial Advertiser, July 15, 1901)  (The same series of eruptions produced Punchbowl and Koko Head Crater.)

Somewhat more than half of the craters of southeast Oahu are arranged in linear groups, those dominated by the craters Tantalus, Diamond Head, and Koko Crater.  In the Diamond Head group is the main Diamond Head vent, Kaimuki crater and Mauʻumae crater.

(A cinder cone is a volcanic cone built almost entirely of loose volcanic fragments called cinders or pumice that accumulate around and downwind from a vent.)

(Cinders are glassy and contain numerous gas bubbles “frozen” into place as magma exploded into the air and then cooled quickly.)  (USGS)

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Filed Under: General, Place Names Tagged With: Leahi, Diamond Head, Hawaii, Oahu, Koolau, Sereno Bishop

February 3, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Georges Phillipe Trousseau

Georges Trousseau was born in Paris on May 1, 1833 to a prominent Parisian family. His father, Armand Trousseau, a distinguished physician and surgeon, was also the author of medical books used throughout the world.  (Greenwell)

He received the usual education of a wealthy Frenchman and entered the ecole de medicine in Paris at the early age of 15.  (Hawaiʻi Holomua, May 5, 1894)

From the days in 1848 and 1852, when he as a student fought in the streets of Paris, he has unswervingly believed in the rights of the people – and early or late was he found ready to serve them as a physician as a friend or simply as a fellow-man.  (Hawaiʻi Holomua, May 5, 1894)

Trousseau married Edna Vaunois, who was also from Paris; they had two children, Armond and Rene in 1856 and 1857.  In 1865, the couple was legally separated (but never divorced.)

He followed his father’s footsteps and graduated from the Paris School of Medicine as a physician in 1858.  He became an army surgeon, seeing service in Algiers early in the fifties. He also served at Solferino and Magenta, Italy.  (Greenwell)

For personal reasons, he left France and went to Australia and New Zealand.  In part, he was at the Australian gold mines, but did not strike it rich; in fact, his estranged wife loaned him money while he was there.  (Greenwell, Hawaiʻi Holomua, May 5, 1894)

He left there and arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1872.  Almost immediately upon his arrival, he was appointed by the Board of Health to serve as Port Physician for Honolulu (there was no salary attached to the office; fees for services were worked out between the Port Physician and the ship/agent the usual charge was $25.)  (Greenwell)

He soon gained great fame as a doctor.  He served on the Board of Health for 20-years, serving as a Board member and as President.   He took an interest in Leprosy and supervised the leper treatment center in Kalihi.

In 1865, the legislature of the Hawaiian Islands had passed “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy.” This law called for a place to be set aside for the isolation of those found to have leprosy in order to curb the spread of the disease.  It was not until 1873, however, on Doctor Trousseau’s recommendation, that a vigorous effort was made to segregate lepers.  (Greenwell)

“Trousseau strongly urging that the only method, at all likely to be successful, was the immediate, energetic, and to a certain extent, unsympathetic isolation of all who were afflicted with the disease, and even that would require a generation in all probability to prove successful.”  (Board of Health, March 1, 1873)

He diagnosed Father (now Saint) Damien’s leprosy.  “… In January, 1885 Damien visited Honolulu … (and accidentally) scalded his left foot. Father Leonore, the provincial of the mission, phoned for Dr George Trousseau, whose examination of the priest’s foot and leg proved they were devoid of feeling … this discovery indicated that the peroneal nerve and its branches were dead due to leprosy.”  (Mouritz; Bushnell)

Though not an official title, Trousseau served as royal physician.  He was called on as a consultant by Doctor Ferdinand W Hutchison, Minister of the Interior, during Kamehameha V’s last illness and was at the King’s bedside when he died.

In August 1873, when it was apparent that King Lunalilo was ill, Trousseau accompanied the King and stayed with Lunalilo at Huliheʻe Palace in Kailua- Kona, from mid-November to the middle of January 1874.  After it became apparent that Lunalilo was not going to recover, and the royal party returned to Honolulu where Lunalilo died on February 3.  (Greenwell)

The rulers of Hawaiʻi honored him.   Lunalilo made him a major in his staff and his personal physician. Kalākaua befriended him and appointed him the executor of his will and the administrator of his estate.  (Hawaiʻi Holomua, May 5, 1894)

“(H)e was always ready to promote any now industry that might prove a source of benefit to his adopted country.”  This got him involved in sheep, sugar and ostriches.  (Hawaiʻi Holomua, May 5, 1894)

In 1875, he gave up his Honolulu medical practice and moved to Kona, Hawaiʻi, where he purchased a sheep and cattle ranch at Kanahaha high on the slopes of Mauna Loa.  Wool was baled at Kanahaha and transported by cart to Kainaliu Beach, from where it was shipped. (Greenwell)

A road was constructed which ran from Kanahaha on Mauna Loa, to the beach at Kainaliu (where he also had a home.) (This old cart road is used by jeeps today and is known as the Trousseau Trail.)  Early in 1879, Trousseau sold all of his holdings in Kona to Henry N Greenwell.

After selling the sheep ranch, Trousseau bought out two sugar planters at Kukuihaele on the Hāmākua coast. He became partners in the Pacific Sugar Mill with the Purvis family. Trousseau had an excellent relationship with John Purvis and his son Herbert.  (Greenwell)

The plantation thrived for a time.  However, defects in the furnace caused difficulties.  In 1881, Trousseau suddenly and unexpectedly sold his half in the plantation to his partners.  He moved back to Honolulu and resumed his medical practice.

He tried one last agricultural venture there.  “The doctor started a new industry for these islands a few years ago (1890) by establishing an ostrich farm at Kapiʻolani Park. Many young birds have been bred from the original stock, and some of the feathers have gone into domestic exports. The farm was under the management of Captain John Morriseau (Trousseau’s nephew.)”  (Daily Bulletin, May 5, 1894)

The 1,000-acre farm (purchased from the Lunalilo Estate) was located in the Kapahulu area near the present zoo; Paul Isenberg, who owned a nearby cattle ranch, later purchased the farm (Trousseau Street notes the general location.)

Though Trousseau never divorced, he did have a mistress, Makanoe; Makanoe was also married (to Kaʻaepa.)  (This relationship is referred to as ‘punalua;’ an association in which, typically, two women, often sisters, share one husband, or, as in Makanoeʻs case, two men share the affection of one woman.)  (Greenwell)

Trousseau died May 4, 1894, shortly after Kaʻaepa’s death.  Makanoe buried her husband and Trousseau side by side in a wrought iron fenced plot at Makiki Cemetery on Oʻahu.  Trousseau left all of his estate to Makanoe (she eventually moved to Salt Lake City, Utah.)

Trousseau faithfully supported the Hawaiian Monarchy and stood up for the royalists which caused bitter feelings among many of his associates who backed the annexationists.

In spite of this, his obituary noted, “It is seldom that people of all classes, opposed to each other socially and politically can gather around the bier of a fellow-citizen and unite in saying, ‘we have lost a friend.’”  (Hawaiʻi Holomua, May 5, 1894)

“Dr. Trousseau was a strong nationalist of Hawaiʻi, who believed that none but born or naturalized subjects should have a determining voice in national affairs. The Hawaiian people, who revered and confided in him, will take his death as a sort bereavement.”  (Daily Bulletin, May 5, 1894)  (Lots of information here from Jean Greenwell.)

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Georges Trousseau, Hawaii, Hawaii Island, Oahu, King Kalakaua, Lunalilo, Molokai, Saint Damien, Hansen's Disease

February 2, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lua

The name conjures up a variety of images – Pukui notes it refers to “two,” “toilet,” “equal” or “hole”/”pit.”

It also refers to a type of dangerous hand-to-hand combat in which the fighters broke bones, dislocated bones at the joints and inflicted severe pain by pressing on nerve centers.

That’s what this discussion is about.

Lua was a hand-to-hand system of combat based on the knowledge of anatomy to strike weak points of the human body. Intended as a self-defense martial art, combatants injured or killed an opponent. (Green)

“Huna na mea huna” (Keep secret what is sacred) – the art was exercised and taught by a few; it was not used or known by the broad community.

Lua incorporates numerous methods for combating an attacker, including hakihaki (bone breaking), hakoko (wresting), kuikui (punching), peku (kicking) and aalolo (nerve pressure.) (Noonan)

The techniques included dislocating the fingers and toes, striking at nerve centers and hitting and kicking muscles in such a way to inflict paralysis; it included the use of weapons. (Green)

Traditionally, only a small group of men were taught lua. The selected warriors practiced lua in secret, under the cover of darkness. They were usually a chief or a royal bodyguard who, during time of war, briefly trained the commoners and then lead them to battle. (OHA)

Reportedly, the secret of Lua was broken in 1917 when Henry Seishiro Okazaki learned Lua from a Hawaiian man on the big Island. Okazaki later converted the Lua he learned and transferred this into his Danzen Ryu System.

Solomon Kaihewalu’s name also comes up in the Lua combat discussion; he reportedly introduced lua into America in 1963.

Another name pops up as someone who was important in keeping the art alive. Around 1974, Charles Kenn passed on his knowledge of the art to a handful of others – they in turn are teaching others.

(Kenn was later recognized by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaiʻi as a Living Treasure of Hawaiʻi (he was the first to be recognized in the Hongwanji program, 1976.))

Traditional weapons in the lua practitioner’s hands included spears, daggers, clubs, slings, strangling ropes, shark tooth weapons and more.

Captain James Cook wrote about them: “They have a sort of weapon which we had never seen before, and not mentioned by any navigator, as used by the natives of the South Sea”

“It was somewhat like a dagger; in general, about a foot and a half long, sharpened at one or both ends, and secured to the hand by a string. Its use is to stab in close fight; and it seems well adapted to the purpose.”

“Some of these may be called double daggers, having a handle in the middle with which they are better enabled to strike both ways.”

Warriors, throughout history, primarily train to use weapons during battle. Hawaiian warriors utilized weapons (Mea – Kaua) offensively and defensively, in training or during actual battle, including (Reish:)

Ihe (short spear)
Pololu (long spear/javelin)
Pāhoa (wooden spike dagger)
Pāhoa ʻOilua (double bladed weapon)
Lei-o-mano (shark-tooth weapon)
La-au-palau (long war clubs)
Newa (short war club)
Pōhaku (stone hand club)
Pikoi ʻIkoi (tripping weapon)
Maʻa (sling)
Kaʻane (strangulation cord)
Ko’oko’o (cane)

Lua, then, was the general name for a type of hand-to-hand fighting which not only included hakihaki (bone-breaking), but combined ha’a (dance,) hakoko (wrestling,) mokomoko/kuʻi (boxing or punching,) peku (kicking,) aʻalolo (nerve pressure) to cause paralysis and also the use of weapons. (Reish)

However, Hawaiian lua training encompasses far more than the master of blows, strikes, takedowns, holds, dodges and falls. It also included the game konane (similar to checkers), designed to teach strategic thinking.

Additionally, lua involved lomilomi (massage) which was designed to enhance a lua warrior’s performance in training or combat by keeping muscles from binding. (Reish)

Hawaiian combat units of old consisted of groups of small squads, units and divisions. The squads and units were broken down into groups of 10, 20 and 30 warriors. A full division consisted of a total of 40 Koa. Each squad of 10 men were experts in several types of weapons they brought with them into combat. (olohe)

A martial dance found in various styles throughout Polynesia is the haka or haʻa, an old word for hula. Lua incorporated the haka to develop grace, agility and strong leg muscles, necessary for battle.

When dancing, the lua artists would lunge forward and back, dodge from side to side, and then whirl and pivot in unison to simulate combat. Their haka arm motions were actually lua strikes in disguise. (Reish)

By 1790 Kamehameha had acquired guns, light cannon and an armed schooner, in addition to the advice and technical expertise of two European seamen, John Young and Isaac Davis; this changed the nature of combat and helped to lead to Kamehameha’s unification of the Islands.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Hawaii, Lua

February 1, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

1848

After a brief stay in the Islands, in 1839, John Augustus Sutter, a Swiss seeking his fortune in America, brought a small group of native Hawaiians with him to California.

They worked for him and eventually intermarried with local native American families. They settled in the area of Vernon, which is now called Verona, where the Feather River flows into the Sacramento River in South Sutter County. (co-sutter-ca-us)

In order to qualify for a land grant, Sutter became a Mexican citizen in 1840; the following year, he received title to about 49,000-acres and named his settlement New Helvetia, or “New Switzerland.” He called his compound Sutter’s Fort.

In his memoirs, Sutter recalled the Hawaiians, using a name then-common to describe Hawaiian workers, “I could not have settled the country without the aid of these Kanakas.”  They built the first settlers’ homes in Sacramento – hale pili (grass shacks) made with California willow and bamboo.

At the time of Sutter’s arrival in California, the territory had a population of only 1,000 Europeans, in contrast with 30,000 Native Americans. At the time, it was part of Mexico and the governor, Juan Bautista Alvarado, granted him permission to settle.

John Sutter ordered a sawmill to be built.  On the morning of January 24, 1848, James Marshall made his customary inspection of the sawmill he was building for Sutter.

During the previous night, Marshall had diverted water through the mill’s tailrace to wash away loose dirt and gravel, and on that fateful day, he noticed some shining flecks of metal left behind by the running water.

He picked them up and showed them to his crew; a young Virginian named Henry William Bigler recorded in his diary: “This day some kind of mettle was found in the tail race that looks like gold first discovered by James Martial, the boss of the Mill.”  (csun)

Word of Marshall’s discovery leaked out and immediately set off a “rush to the mines.” By the spring of 1849, the largest gold rush in American history was under way. At the time of Marshall’s discovery, the state’s non-Indian population numbered about 14,000. By the end of 1849, it had risen to nearly 100,000, and it continued to swell to some 250,000 by 1852.

Gold was both plentiful and – by happy geologic accident- easy to extract, making the gold-bearing gravels of California’s rivers into what has been described as “the finest opportunity that, has ever been offered on any mining frontier.”

A contemporary newspaper put it slightly differently: “The whole country, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the sea shore to the base of the Sierra Nevadas, resounds with the cry of ‘gold, GOLD, GOLD!’ while the field is left half planted, the house half built, and everything neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pickaxes.” (California Parks)

“Forty-Niner” has become the collective label for those who participated in the famous California Gold Rush. Quite a few people arrived in 1848, and many came after 1849; however, it was the year 1849 which witnessed the large wave of gold-seekers.  (Hinckley)

Place names like Kanaka Creek in Sierra County and Kanaka Bar in Trinity County tell us of the growing presence of Hawaiians in gold country.  “Hawaiians also migrated to Yolo County, California to participate in the Gold Rush and created their own Kanaka Village.”

In the Islands …

The California Gold Rush drawing Hawaiians to the continent was not its only effect on the Islands; the Hawaiian economy was affected in several ways – good and not-so-good.

Prior to the Gold Rush, supporting the Pacific whaling and trading fleets and trade between the West Coast and Hawaiʻi was the scale of the Hawaiʻi participation.  The scale of that significantly changed with the Gold Rush.

Hawaiʻi was only three to five weeks away, and with the growing population drawn to the gold fields, in addition to provisioning ships, Hawaiʻi farmers were feeding the gold seekers on the continent.

There were some down sides; this also brought a marked increase in the prices of consumer goods, especially food, caused by the great increase in agricultural exports to California, which offered very profitable new markets.  (Rawls)

Likewise, the exodus to the continent created a critical labor shortage in Hawaiʻi, where a sizeable number of sugar plantation workers migrated to the California gold fields. 

The parting of workers from the plantations between 1848 and 1853 was so large, Hawaiʻi sugar producers began to seek Chinese immigrants to fill the gap.  (Rawls)

Great Māhele – 1848

At the time of Captain Cook’s contact with the Hawaiian Islands the land was divided into several independent Kingdoms.  By right of conquest, each King was owner of all the lands within his jurisdiction.

After selecting lands for himself, the King allotted the remaining to the warrior Chiefs who rendered assistance in his conquest.  These warrior Chiefs, after retaining a portion for themselves, reallotted the remaining lands to their followers and supporters.

The distribution of lands was all on a revocable basis.  What the superior gave, he was able to take away at his pleasure.  This ancient tenure was in nature feudal, although the tenants were not serfs tied to the soil – they were allowed to move freely from the land of one Chief to that of another. 

Under King Kamehameha III, the most important event in the reformation of the land system in Hawaii was the separation of the rights of the King, the Chiefs and the Konohiki (land agents.)

The King retained all of his private lands as his individual property; one third of the remaining land was to be for the Hawaiian Government; one third for the Chiefs and Konohiki; and one third to be set aside for the tenants, the actual possessors and cultivators of the soil.

More than 240 of the highest ranking Chiefs and Konohiki in the Kingdom joined Kamehameha III in this task.  The first māhele, or division, of lands was signed on January 27, 1848; the last māhele was signed on March 7, 1848.

Each māhele was in effect a quitclaim agreement between the King and a Chief or Konohiki with reference to the lands in which they both claimed interests.

The lands identified and separated in 1848 as Crown lands, Government lands and Konohiki lands were all “subject to the rights of native tenants” on their respective kuleana.  The Land Commission was authorized to award fee simple titles to native tenants who occupied and improved the land (and proved they actually cultivated those lands for a living.)

The awarding of these completed the māhele of the lands into the Crown lands, Government lands, Konohiki lands and Kuleana lands and brought to an end the ancient system of land tenure in the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Epidemics of 1848 – 1849

The earliest published reference to the epidemics occurred in The Polynesian, the government newspaper, on October 14, 1848: “SICKNESS.—Much sickness prevails here at the present time.”

“The measles and whooping cough have at length made their appearance here. The whooping cough made its appearance a few weeks since, and during the last week several cases of the measles have occurred in town.”

“By an arrival from Hilo, we learn that the measles prevail extensively among the native population of Hilo. Both the measles and whooping cough are comparatively light, and no fears need be entertained if proper care be taken. Among the native population some cases have proved fatal, owing to exposure and improper treatment.”

“The mumps prevailed here some years since, and we understand several cases have lately occurred. Pleurisy and bilious fever prevail to some extent among the native population. Several cases of influenza similar to that which occurred here in 1845 have lately occurred.”

On March 1, 1849, toward the end of the epidemics (which, incidentally, no one has precisely dated), The Friend ran a brief article titled “Decrease of Polynesian Races.”

This article stated, “By the epidemics (whooping cough, measles, and influenza), which have raged among the Hawaiians, during the last 12 months, it is estimated that not less than 10,000 have been swept away or about one-tenth of the population.”

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, General Tagged With: Hawaii, Gold Rush, Great Mahele, Epidemics

January 31, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Freeman

“The adult men in the first settlement of Plymouth all held the status of ‘stockholders’ in the joint-stock company that financed the Colony or ‘plantation.’”

“They thus shared in the ownership of the plantation’s assets, its speculative economic venture, and its liabilities.  They participated in the economic venture and its colonial government.”

“The colonists also began use of the separate term ‘freemen’ early in the settlement, which indicated a citizen of the Colony, who possessed the right to vote for the Governor and Assistants and the right to hold office (thus, all stockholders were freemen, but not all freemen would be stockholders). Women and servants were not eligible for freeman status.” (Fennell)

A “freeman” (this designation has nothing to do with slavery, or former slavery) refers to a person’s position in his church and community. This position as a “freeman” had to be earned by those who settled among the New England colonists. (Dehler)

A “freeman” should not be confused with a “freeholder” or “free planter.” These latter terms refer to individuals who possessed land. This land was usually either granted to the person by the colony, purchased by him from the colony, or inherited. Freemen, of course, could be, and were, free planters – that is, land owners.

A man who committed a crime or infraction against the government or church could lose his status of freeman and also lose his land. (Dehler)

When he first entered the colony, a settler was not considered “free.” He was a commoner. His actions and activities were closely monitored by the hierarchy to make sure they fit with the church’s ideal.

If the man proved himself to fit with this ideal – if he joined the church, paid his debts, was owing to no man, and was under no judicial restraints – he would be accepted by the hierarchy and would be allowed to take the freemen’s oath.

This process of acceptance took some time because the man had to prove himself worthy and become a member in good standing of the congregation. (Dehler)

“The status of ‘freeman’ conferred the right to take part in the government of the Colony as a whole … The ultimate unit of political participation and power was the individual ‘freeman.’  This was a formal status of which all adult male householders might directly apply.”

“Approval was based on general consideration of character and competence; … Plymouth set no specific requirements in terms of church membership.”

“Initially, the ‘freemen’ themselves composed the General Court, which enacted all necessary ‘laws and ordinances,’ voted ‘rates’ (taxes), and (after 1640) supervised the distribution of lands.” (Demos)

“Freemen were required to take an oath of allegiance to the Colony and to England. There were several instances of charges brought to the Court over the years of freemen failing or refusing to take such an oath.”

“In 1659, for example, twelve men were convicted for refusing to take the oath, and were fined 5 pounds sterling each, although not banished or imprisoned.” (Fennell)

“Sometime in the period from 1636 to 1671, the Plymouth colonists formulated a declaration called The General Fundamentals, which further emphasized their desire for self-governance as ‘freemen’ or ‘associates’:

This has often been viewed by historians as one of the earliest forms of a demand for “representative” government and individual rights in the American colonies.

“Restrictions focusing on Quakers were added as well. No Quaker could be a freemen, and a freemen who became a Quaker would lose his status, as would any freemen who aided Quakers.”

“The duties of being a freeman may have been more than some persons cared to possess. Towns often were forced to threaten fines for freemen failing to attend town meetings. An even heavier fine was levied against freemen who failed to attend the General Court or to serve on the Grand Enquest when selected.”

“As a result, by 1638 the freemen had prompted legislation which permitted them to elect representatives, called ‘deputies,’ who would then attend the sessions of the General Court for each town. Those persons elected deputies tended to be re-elected year after year.”

“While only freemen could be elected to be deputies, nonfreemen who paid taxes and swore fidelity to the Colony were permitted to vote for candidates for deputy.”

“By 1652, the General Court instituted a process for freemen to vote by proxy at the General Court sessions, to prevent them from having to travel to Plymouth Town where the Court was convened.”

“The declaration of ‘The Generall Fundamentals’ set forth in the 1672 Book of Laws listed an array of rights and privileges possessed by freemen.”

“No freeman was to be punished ‘but by virtue or equity of some express Law of the General Court of this Colony, the known law of God, or the good and equitable laws of our Nation.’”  (Fennell)

Click the following link to a general summary about Freeman:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Freeman.pdf

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Mayflower Summaries Tagged With: Mayflower, Pilgrims, Freeman, Quaker

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