The history and growth of Christianity in Hawaiʻi include Henry
Opukahaʻia, a native Hawaiian from the Island of Hawaiʻi.
In 1809, at the age of 16, after his parents had been killed, he
boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent.
On board, he developed a friendship with a Christian sailor who, using
the Bible, began teaching Opukahaʻia how to read and write.
Once landed, he traveled throughout New England and continued to learn
and study.
Opukahaʻia’s life in New England was greatly influenced by many young
men with proven sincerity and religious fervor that were active in the Second
Great Awakening and the establishment of the missionary movement.
These men had a major impact on Opukahaʻia’s enlightenment in
Christianity and his vision to return to Hawaiʻi as a Christian missionary.
By 1817, a dozen students, six of them Hawaiians, were training at the
Foreign Mission School to become missionaries to teach the Christian faith to
people around the world.
He improved his English by writing the story of his life in a book
called “Memoirs of Henry Obookiah” (the spelling of his name prior to
establishment of the formal Hawaiian alphabet, based on its sound.)
Opukahaʻia died suddenly of typhus fever in 1818. The book about his life was printed and
circulated after his death.
Opukahaʻia’s book inspired 14 missionaries to volunteer to carry his
message to the Sandwich Islands.
On October 23, 1819, a group of missionaries from the northeast United
States, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as
Hawai‘i.)
There were seven couples sent by the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity.
These included two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil
and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his
wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and
his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; a Farmer, Daniel
Chamberlain, his wife and five children.
Along with them were four Hawaiian youths who had been students at the
Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince
Humehume (son of Kauaiʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i and also known as Prince George
Kaumuali‘i.)
After 164 days at sea, on April 4, 1820 (192-years ago, today,) the
Thaddeus first arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi.
Hawai‘i’s “Plymouth Rock” is about where the Kailua pier is today.
The Thurstons remained in Kailua-Kona, while their fellow missionaries
went to establish stations on other Hawaiian islands.
Hiram Bingham, the leader of the group, went to Honolulu to set up a
mission headquarters; Whitney and Ruggles accompanied Prince Kaumuali‘i on his
return to Kaua‘i. (Hiram is my
great-great-great grandfather.)
By the time the missionaries arrived, Kamehameha I had died, Liholiho
(his son) was king and the kapu system had been abolished.
I have added a folder of like name in the Photos section of my Facebook
page of images from Hiram Bingham’s book, “A Residence of Twenty-one Years in
the Sandwich Islands” and other related images.
Several of the illustrations show missionary work across the islands.
in reading your account about the Kapu system being abolished, isn't it because Queen Ka'ahumanu fell ill and Hiram Bingham and his wife helped her back to health and because of this they used christianity as a reason for her recovery and she believed that and abolished the kapu system?
ReplyDeleteThe kapu was abolished in 1819; the first missionaries (including Hiram and Sybil Bingham) arrive in Kona on April 4, 1820. Kaahumanu did become ill and Sybil helped nurse her to recovery. That is one of the motivations for Kaahumanu to accept Christianity.
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