The spring of 1823 would bring a new wave of missionaries to include, William Richards, his wife, and Charles Stewart, with his wife Harriet, and their African companion Betsey Stockton from the Second Company in Boston. These missionaries, along with many westerners, were weary of the Native Hawaiians as viewed in the journal of Betsey Stockton. An excerpt from the first interaction with the natives on April 24, 1823, defined the Hawaiian men who greeted the ship as “half man and half beast-naked-except a narrow strip of tapa round their loins.” “The ladies” she continues “retired to the cabin, and burst into tears; some of the gentlemen turned pale: my own soul sickened with me and every nerve trembled.” She continues her passage by reminder herself “they are men and have souls.”
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As they set forth in their missions to “civilize” the Natives, they quickly began instilling American culture, religious intolerance, and worked to ban those things not only economically beneficial to the islanders, but those things considered to be of traditional significance to the Natives. The list of banned items and actions continued to grow to include; drinking, gambling, prostitution polygamy, working on the Sabbath and dancing the hula. These strict codes of conduct quickly began having an effect on the whalers and traders visiting the islands. Fighting ensued between the missionaries and foreigners.
The activity of the missionaries, expansionist ambitions of the United States, and commercial interests secured by foreigners in the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 1820’s provided an opening for the ensuing battles over control of the islands. From 1825-1840, the American missionaries possessed great influence within the political, economic and foreign spheres of the Kingdom, which greatly determined the path of the islands for the 50 years following their initial
As they set forth in their missions to “civilize” the Natives, they quickly began instilling American culture, religious intolerance, and worked to ban those things not only economically beneficial to the islanders, but those things considered to be of traditional significance to the Natives. The list of banned items and actions continued to grow to include; drinking, gambling, prostitution polygamy, working on the Sabbath and dancing the hula. These strict codes of conduct quickly began having an effect on the whalers and traders visiting the islands. Fighting ensued between the missionaries and foreigners.
The activity of the missionaries, expansionist ambitions of the United States, and commercial interests secured by foreigners in the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 1820’s provided an opening for the ensuing battles over control of the islands. From 1825-1840, the American missionaries possessed great influence within the political, economic and foreign spheres of the Kingdom, which greatly determined the path of the islands for the 50 years following their initial