HAOLES IN HAWAI‘I: MARITIME FAMILIES, INDUSTRY, AND IMPERIALISM IN 19TH CENTURY HAWAI‘I
By Mallory Huard PhD Candidate, Departments of History & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Advisor: Dr. Lori Ginzberg
PENN STATE UNIVERSITY 2021 GRADUATE EXHIBITION INTRODUCTION METHODOLOGY SIGNIFICANCE
• Subjects: white women • Explores the impact • Challenges previous and role of maritime married to whaling and women in American merchant captains from New narratives about commercial imperialism England captains’ wives at sea in the Hawaiian Kingdom from about • Sources: letters, journals, and • Brings new faces and the 1840s-1890s diaries, and logbooks voices into the histories of American imperialism • Chapter 2 from my • Archives: New Bedford dissertation, “America’s Whaling Museum, Nantucket • Offers a glimpse into Private Empire: Family Historical Society, Mystic the origins of the Seaport Research Library, and Commercial tourism industry in Imperialism in 19th Hawaiian Historical Society, Hawai‘i Century Hawai‘i” Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, Bishop Museum PART 1: MOTIVES AND CONTEXT “I do not wonder that so many choose a sailor’s • Numerous and complex motives: life. It is a life of • Fear of husbands’ behavior hardship, but it is • Family togetherness a life full of • Financial stress romance and • Sense of adventure interest.” • Language of “domesticity” as justification for their presence • Hoped to be a moderating influence on sailors Mary Lawrence and her daughter, Minnie PART 2: IMPERIALIST IMPRESSIONS
• Mariner women were both informed by and part of perpetuating imperialist and racist attitudes • Failed to distinguish different indigenous populations and individual Hawaiian people • Misinterpretation and objectification of Hawaiian people, customs and traditions Mary Brewster Kinoʻoleoliliha • Showed little interest in interacting with Hawaiian people, isolating themselves among white missionaries and merchant families “His house is furnished genteely and in • Celebrated (white) colonial institutions good order. But a native wife spoils the • Their recollections and stories were whole and leaves a dark side to the circulated back in their hometowns pleasant place.” PART 3: LABOR, EXPLOITATION, AND TOURISM
• Maritime families were often dependent on Hawaiian labor for food, shelter, and travel • Gave rise to a hospitality industry, especially in Honolulu • Sacred Hawaiian practices like the hula were performed as entertainment for white visitors • Most proprietors were haoles (white, foreigners) and laborers were Native Hawaiians • Natural phenomena like volcanoes became popular tourist sites • Tourism intensified throughout the 20 th century and is the most dominant industry in Hawai‘i today Sketches from the “Volcano House” Visitors Book, 1881, by Joseph Nawahi TOURISM IN HAWAI‘I TODAY
• Leads to unaffordable housing • Native Hawaiians disproportionately experience homelessness • Economic dependence • Tourists significantly outnumber residents • Relies on the exploitation of Hawaiian culture and traditions IMAGE SOURCES
Title Slide: Honolulu Harbor in 1857. Lithograph by F. H. Burgess from the Hawaii State Archives.
Slide 3: Mary Chipman Lawrence photo copied from Stanton Garner, editor, The Captain’s Best Mate: The Journal of Mary Chipman Lawrence on the Whaler Addison, 1856-1860, (Providence: Brown University Press, 1966).
Slide 4: Mary Brewster, ca. 1854. Daguerrotype by J. Gurnsey from the Mystic Seaport Museum. AND Portrait of Mrs. Benjamin Pitman (High Chiefess Kinoole-o-Liliha). Painting by John Mix Stanley (Peabody Essex Museum). Public Domain.
Slide 5: Sketches from the Volcano House visitors book, 1881, by Joseph Nawahi from David W. Forbes, Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and Its People, 1778–1941, ( Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992). Public Domain.
Slide 6: View of Honolulu from Diamond Head, 2017. Author’s Personal Photo Collection.