Henry Ōpūkahaia (circa 1792–1818) was one of the first
native Hawaiians to become a
Christian, inspiring
American Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
missionaries to come to the islands during the 19th century. He is credited with starting Hawaii's conversion to Christianity. His name was usually spelled Obookiah during his lifetime. His name Henry is sometimes Hawaiianized as Heneri.
Biography
`Ōpūkaha`ia was born at
Ka`ū on the
island of Hawai`i in 1792. When he was 10, his family was murdered by Hawaiian warriors. In 1807, when Captain Caleb Britnall took him aboard the ''Triumph'', the teenage boy had his first English lessons en route to
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
, along with fellow Hawaiian
cabin boy Thomas Hopu. As a student in the New Haven area, he was looked after in a succession of homes, and worked summers to help earn his keep. The future Reverend Edwin W. Dwight, a senior in
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
at the time, met him in 1809, when he discovered`Ōpūkaha`ia sitting on the steps of the college. When `Ōpūkaha`ia lamented that "No one give me learning," Dwight agreed to help him find tutoring.
[ `Ōpūkaha`ia took up residence with one of Dwight's relatives, Yale president ]Timothy Dwight IV
Timothy Dwight (May 14, 1752January 11, 1817) was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He was the eighth president of Yale College (1795–1817).
Early life
Timothy Dwight was born May 14, 17 ...
, a founder of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most imp ...
, who instructed him in Christian and secular subjects. He had studied English grammar
English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, Sentence (linguistics), sentences, and whole texts.
This article describes a generalized, present-day Standard English ...
and the usual curriculum in public schools by the time he converted to Christianity in 1815, during the Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. R ...
.
He and other Polynesians and Native Americans requested training to spread the Gospel
The gospel or good news is a theological concept in several religions. In the historical Roman imperial cult and today in Christianity, the gospel is a message about salvation by a divine figure, a savior, who has brought peace or other benefit ...
back home. This inspired the founding of the Foreign Mission School
The Foreign Mission School was an educational institution which operated between 1817 and 1826 in Cornwall, Connecticut. It was established by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The ABCFM was focused on sending missionaries ...
in 1816, administered from Boston by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most imp ...
(ABCFM). It had broad support from the residents of Cornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,567 at the 2020 census.
History
The town of Cornwall, Connecticut, is named after the county of Cornwall, England. The town was incorporated in 1740, near ...
, where it moved in 1817, and from donors elsewhere in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. During its ten years, about 100 students attended: "43 Native Americans, 13 Americans (white), and 20 Hawaiians, and other natives of the Pacific. including 2 Chinese".
Even before this school opened, Edwin Dwight wrote in 1818, `Ōpūkaha`ia had begun "'reducing to system his own native tongue. As it was not a written language, but lay in its chaotic state, every thing was to be done…he had made some progress towards completing a Grammar, a Dictionary, and a Spelling-book.'" However, these books no longer exist. Samuel B. Ruggles, one of the First Company of missionaries to Hawaii and a fellow student of `Ōpūkaha`ia at Cornwall, mentions in an 1819 letter that his own grammar was "much assisted by one which `Ōpūkaha`ia attempted to form." Elisha Loomis, who was to be printer for the first mission, was inspired to join it by reading `Ōpūkaha`ia's memoirs, edited by Dwight in the year of his death from typhus fever, over a year before the First Company set sail from Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
`Ōpūkaha`ia planned to return to Hawaii himself to preach, but contracted typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
fever and died in 1818 in Cornwall at the age of 26.
In 1826 the Foreign Mission School was closed by a scandal – two interracial marriages were too much for Cornwall residents. But both the school and `Ōpūkaha`ia were a catalyst for the Sandwich Island Mission and for the first concentrated efforts to analyse the language.
Re-interment
In 1993, some descendants of `Ōpūkaha`ia's family decided to return his body from his grave in Connecticut to Hawaii. On Aug. 15, 1993, his remains were laid in a vault facing the sea at Kahikolu Church
Kahikolu Church is one of only two stone churches from the 19th century on the island of Hawaii. It was built from 1852–1855 on the site of an earlier building known as Kealakekua Church that was built around 1833 in the Kona district.
History ...
near the town of Napoopoo, Kona, on the Island of Hawaii. It was the third church established in Hawaii by missionaries inspired by Opukahaia. Hawaii's churches observe the third Sunday in February as a day of commemoration in honor of its first Christian. A plaque at the Cornwall gravesite reads: "In July of 1993, the family of Henry Opukahaia took him home to Hawaii for interment at Kahikolu Congregational Church Cemetery, Napo'opo'o, Kona, Island of Hawaii. Henry's family expresses gratitude, appreciation and love to all who cared for and loved him throughout the past years. Ahahui O Opukahaia"
Works
Besides translating the Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
into Hawaiian, `Ōpūkaha`ia nearly completed a Hawaiian dictionary, grammar, and spelling book. The ''Memoirs of Henry Obookiah'' were published in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in 1818 and have been republished by the Woman's Board of Missions for the Pacific Islands several times since the 1960s. They have recently republished the 195-year-old book with a new epilogue of how his body was returned to the Big Island of Hawaii, along with new photographs.
Notes
References
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*
Further reading
*
Lyons, J. K. (2004). Memoirs of Henry Obookiah: A Rhetorical History. ''Hawaiian Journal of History'', 38, 35-57.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Opukahaia, Henry
1790s births
1818 deaths
Converts to Protestantism from pagan religions
Native Hawaiian people
Hawaiian Kingdom Protestants
People from Hawaii (island)
Hawaiian Kingdom translators
Deaths from typhus
Infectious disease deaths in Connecticut
19th-century translators