High Chiefess Kapiʻolani (c. 1781–1841) was an important member of the Hawaiian nobility at the time of the founding of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the arrival of Christian missionaries. One of the first Hawaiians to read and write, as well as sponsoring a church. She made a dramatic display of her new faith, which was the subject of a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Ancestry
Every high chief in the Hawaiian Islands was related to her, including Kamehameha I, who was both her second cousin and her third cousin through different relations. Her ancestors included royalty of Kauaʻi, royalty of Maui and the royalty of Hawaiʻi island. The name probably comes from ka pi'o lani meaning "heavenly arch" in the Hawaiian language.
The father of Kapiʻolani was Keawemauhili, who was high chief (Aliʻi Nui) of the district of Hilo on the island of Hawaiʻi. She was probably born there about 1781. Keawemauhili was half-brother to Kalaniʻōpuʻu who was king of the island during the fatal visit of Captain James Cook in 1779. Her mother was his second wife Kekikipaʻa, daughter of Kameʻeiamoku, who had fled with from her first husband Kamehameha I to Hilo in order to marry Keawemauhili. She was a first cousin of Kiwalaʻo, the young king of the island who was killed when Kamehameha I first came to power at the battle of Mokuʻōhai in July 1782.
Life
After a quiet period of a few years, the civil wars continued in 1790. Her father Keawemauhili joined forces with Kamehameha, but was then killed by his nephew Keōua Kuahuʻula. The young Kapiʻolani was thrown in the bushes by her caretakers as the army fled, but was saved and sent to live with her aunt Akahi in the village of Kealia in the Kona District near the religious centers on Kealakekua Bay. She was instructed in the Hawaiian religion and its strict social rules known as kapu. For example, women were not allowed to eat bananas. Once she sent a servant boy to secretly get some for her to taste. When the local priest found out, she was spared but the boy was sacrificed.
She was still a young girl when the Vancouver Expedition arrived at Kealakekua Bay in 1793 and 1794. This time, through interpreters, Hawaiians could start to learn about other cultures. In 1805, an epidemic known as mai oku'u broke out. Much of the royalty, including Kamehameha I and Kapiʻolani got very sick. She might have briefly married High Chief Chief Kuakini, who later became the royal governor of the island. She became known as having liaisons with several members of the ruling class.
The death of Kamehameha in 1819 put the kingdom into turmoil. The period known as ʻAi Noa (literally, "free eating") after one king's death was traditionally followed by the new king imposing similar Kapu rules. However, this time, powerful women such as Queen Kaʻahumanu (then Regent), Keōpūolani (mother of the new King Kamehameha II), along with Kapiʻolani, were not satisfied with the old ways. Chief Keaoua Kekuaokalani attempted to gather followers of the old system at the temple near where she was living, but he was defeated at the battle of Kuamoʻo.
American Christian Missionaries led by Rev. Asa Thurston arrived only a few months later, in March 1820 at Kailua-Kona about to the north. They had already embarked on the ship Thaddeus before Kamehameha's death. They describe meeting Kapiʻolani for the first time as she was sunbathing while applying coconut oil, "basking in the noonday tropical sun, like a seal". They also describe finding her "with her two husbands, all nearly nude, and in a state of beastly intoxication".
She followed the missionaries to Honolulu in 1821, where a school had been set up. She quickly learned to read and write and settled into a monogamous relationship with her husband Naihe (her stepbrother, since her father married his mother). She returned to Kealakekua Bay in the spring of 1823, but wanted to continue her education. She would send boats up to Kailua to pick up a preacher for Sunday services.