Ka’ahumanu’s Christian Conversion: The Tahitian Connection

by Nicholas A. Freeman

Queen Regent Kaahumanu (Kuhina Nui),[1] the last wife of Kamehameha I,[2] was a primary force for Christianity in the Hawaiian Islands in the first half of the nineteenth century, which helped set the stage for the Great Hawaiian Revival, the growth of Protestant churches, and Hawaii’s early educational system.  David W Forbes, Co-Author of ‘Partners in Change,’ Forbes writes that the “entire mission owed its success more to the assistance of the great chiefess Ka’ahumanu than to any other person.”[3]

In tracing the steps which led to Ka’ahumanu’s conversion to Christ, one must first look to Tahiti in the year 1796, in which a converted seafarer, James Wilson, along with a party of thirty English missionaries arrived with the gospel of Christ.[4] For many years the missionaries met with much resistance to their work there, but in 1808 a friendship with the King Pomare II began to bear fruit, in that for the first time he showed signs of conversion.[5] After several rebellions among the people, his faith stood strong.  With the arrival of Samuel Marsden and a new group of missionaries from Australia, the Christian faith began to take hold in Tahiti. Soon more were coming to Christ then in the prior ten years, so that by the end of 1814, over three hundred Tahitians were attending weekly services. Combining this with the faith of the King Pomare, who refused to take revenge on an attack from his enemies in 1815, many more of the Tahaitians came to Christ. As a result, all things related to their prior religion, including the idols, were burned or buried.[6]  This move of providence could have possibly had a later influence on Kaahumanu and others in the abolishing of the kapu system November 7, 1819, along with the High priest Hewahewa setting fire to a hundred wooden idols at the nearest heiau.[7][8]

The first wave of missionaries led by Hiram Bingham, along with Hawaiian believers John Honoree and Thomas Hopu arrived in April, 1820.

At first, according to the missionaries, Kaahumanu was somewhat indifferent to the faith, although cooperative in general, but as time went on, as she encountered various believers, including her fellow countrymen John Honoree and Thomas Hopu, her heart began to soften. Another compelling fact which no doubt had to have affected her for Christ, was the well-known Hawaiian oral prophecy of Kalaikuahulu, who had predicted a new religion to come, as Bingham notes that “when the revealed word of Jehovah was made known to them, Kaahumanu and others regarded the prediction of Kalaikuahulu as having a fulfilment.”[9]

Another significant step towards her conversion came because of her near death from a terrible sickness she suffered in December 1821. So serious was her condition that on December 15^th, 1821, she was not expected to live through the day. On the 16^th, the Bingham’s visited her bedside, and he said to her “I trust you are thinking seriously of the Great God and our Savior,” to which she replied, “I think more about him in my sickness.” She then gave her full consent for his prayers and asked for a period of silence.[10] Jennifer Thigpen notes in her work Island Queens and Mission Wives, that Sybil Bingham’s care for her while she was sick along with the persistent witness of the other missionary wives modeling their day to day lives before her, played a key part in a later conversion.[11]

Additional softening of her heart would come the following year, 1822, with the arrival of the Tahitian Christian teacher Auna and his wife Aunawahine, along with missionary William Ellis. Auna and his wife formed an immediate bond with her and many of the Ali’i which enabled them to share in both bible study and prayer with her and other leaders, as well as fill them in on the specifics of the tremendous success of the gospel in Tahiti, including the specifics of the revival of 1814 and the burning of their idols.[12]

After residing in her compound for several months, all the while teaching her the bible along with reading and writing,[13] they were able to accompany her, fellow ali’i, and a large retinue of people on a tour of the windward isles from May 11 to July 8, 1822, which included stops in Lahaina, Maui, and both Kailua and Hilo, Hawaii. One of the more noteworthy happenings of this trip was recorded by Auna in his journal:

Early this morning Kuakini's men who had been sent for the gods, returned. The chief then ordered his people to make a large fire and then set to work himself and with his people assisting him, burned one hundred and two idols. I thought of which I had witnessed at Tahiti, and Moarea, when the idols there were burnt, particularly the idols burnt at Pape-tiai, by Paitu, and with my heart praised Jehovah, the true God, that I had witnessed these people following our example.[14]

While the couple had made a tremendous impact on the queen, after a stay of only two years, due to his wife’s illness, Auna and his wife returned to Tahiti in March 1824, where he served Christ faithfully until his death in 1835.[15]  The impression they left was never forgotten, both with her and the mission. As a result of years of toil by English, Tahitian, and American missionaries, the following year, in 1825, Kaahumanu and multiple members of the Ali’i including Opiia, Tapule, Keriiahonui, Laahui, Kaiu, and others,[16]  along with Hawaiian members totaling 100 persons, gave their lives to Christ and were baptized at Honolulu,[17] after careful examination by the pastor.  From henceforth she became known to her people as the “New Kaahumanu” because of the drastic change in her demeanor and treatment of others after her salvation. This “newness” which was the complete opposite of her prior unbelief and haughtiness, would last until her death in 1832.[18]

Much of her contribution to Christianity in the islands was her influence not only with the King and the ali’i, but also in the women’s prayer group she established in Honolulu, along with the countless tours she made of all the islands, exhorting the people to embrace Christianity and the school program all the while shining the light of her new glory filled demeanor among her people. The result of these tours was described by Professor Bartlett as “…Electrical, pervading at once every island of the group, every obscure village and district, and operating with immense power on all grades and conditions of society.”[19]

Another example of her changed heart and mind was a moment she shared with Rev. Artemis Bishop, who had accompanied her on one of her tours of the island of Hawaii. While touring at Kawaihae, she shared with him that this location was where her husband used to worship his gods, and where many a human sufferer had been sacrificed. As she gazed on the site, she raised her hands towards the heavens and exclaimed “I thank God, for what my eyes now see, Hawaii’s gods are no more.”[20]

Maxine Mrantz acknowledges Kaahumanu’s far reaching influence in, Women of Old Hawaii, stating that it was because of the zealousness of Ka’ahumanu that Hawaii became a Protestant country, as Ka’ahumanu felt that Hawaii’s future lay best with the model of living demonstrated by the missionaries rather than the corrupt ways of the traders.[21]

Kaahumanu’s influence was also felt in the educational system, in which Gregory Nobles noted in his work The Education of Betsey Stockton adding that she was the first ali’i at Lahaina to embrace learning to read and write and made herself subject to her teachers early on, which in turn helped her to be seen as the authorized teacher and ruler of the people,[22] and aided her in setting the new direction for Hawaii as she made her tours across the islands. She also helped provide the land, along with neighboring chiefs, that was used to establish the Lahainaluna School on Maui,[23] and even provided fresh fish from Molokai as food for the newly installed teachers.[24] At Hilo she again provided land for the newly formed station when she traveled there with Lord Byron in 1825.[25]

In looking back at her long lasting impact as a result of all of these initiatives, James M. Alexander, in his work Mission Life in Hawaii: Memoir of Rev. William P. Alexander, relates of the bearing of her death stating that “the mission had lost a mother, counselor, firm and unshaken supporter, but that heaven had received a soul cleansed by the blood of Christ…”[26]

Kaahumanu worked tirelessly towards completion of the first Hawaiian language New Testament, so much so that as she lay on her death bed in 1832, “one of the first off the press was neatly bound in red Morocco leather and presented to Queen Ka’ahumanu.” (Ka Pai Palapala, Day and Loomis, pp.17-19)

 Her amazing effect was noted by all, including Rev. Asa Thurston, missionary at Kailua, Hawaii who added in his 1835 mission station report of her prevailing influence among the people in regards to church attendance noting that since she had passed away the attendance numbers had dropped almost half of what they were while she lived.[27]

These testimonials provide insight into the true power of her impact on her people and the missionaries as it related to the Christian faith, schools, and the palapala.  Her constant message amongst the people till the end of her life was, “O kings, O people, listen, all of you should strive for justice, keep the commandment of our Lord Jesus; and the words of our brothers, in truth, that is the only thing that I have come to tell you about salvation, that is my desire; let us all turn to that which will save our souls; He will not leave me.”[28]

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