Statewide County HI Archives News.....African Americans in Hawaii, Part II June 8, 2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 June 17, 2008, 4:59 pm Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands June 8, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 June 8, 2008 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i A Study in Time of the Hawa'ian Islands. African Americans in Hawai'i - part 2. by Darlene E. Kelley ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ African Americans of the Hawai'ian Islands. a continued study. To understand how the Afrrican American was introduced to the Hawai'ian Islands we must remember that the islands were a melting pot, where many ethnic cultures were intermixed with another. The time elimate can probably be traced if one tries to under stand the origins of the earliest beginnings. While Europeans had always known about Africa, they hadn't known much and their desire to make money, when money was much needed, made Africa interesting. The first real substancial relationships Europeans forged with Africans were with the Islamic civilizations and traders of their own country of North Africa. These two groups had been sporadic but undefined contact all through the European Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century, the major Islamic civilizations were beginning to decline in power, but not their impressiveness. The Europeans were amazed by what they saw, especially in the Sudanese empire. The modern history of Europe and Afrca is overwhelmingly saturated with Europeans forcibly deporting Africans into European states. Equally Europeans forced political, social, religious, and economic practices on Africans durng the colonial period and afterwards. They were as much interested in African culture as they expected the Africans to be interested in theirs. All the contemporary evidence implies that they saw the Africans as equal pertners in civilization, government, and commerce. The Africans, it seems, also believed this. During this heady period at the start of the cultural exchange between the two hemispheres, Africans regularly came to Europe to study Western culture; in 1518, for example, Henry of the Congo, traveled to the Vatican and became the first bishop of the Congo. All of this would change, however, as the two hemispheres were headed for a collision. The tradgedy that broke this initial historical pattern was slavery, and slavery, in a great irony of history, was driven by the discovery of a new hemisphere in the west. The European trade in human goods begins right at the start of European relations with Africa. This initial slave trade, however, was small. The Islamic civilzatins and traders of the North and Western Africa had a booming traffic inblack slavery as they marched slaves across the Sahara to the regions of the east. Surprisingly, though, slavery was not racially based in most human history; racial slavery, that is, slavery that is predicted on race as a way of separating slave from free, was a creation of the seventeenth century. Slavery has been a constant in human history. The only period of time in which slavery has not been a major part of the human experience is within the last two hundred years. Slavery has one and only motive; economic. Slave labor is cheap labor; it is purchased at the price of the survival of the laborer. It is not necessarily efficiant labor, however, for people do not really invest themselves in coerced work. Most of human history is characterized by low production economics; these low production economics prouce just enough to survive for the majority of the workers in the economy. In such economy, slavery, or coerced labor, is the most common solutions to maintain a large, low productive economy. Throughout most of human histoy, slaves were drawn from conquored populations and defeated armies, and many slaves were simply sold ( or sold themselves ) into slavery by the rulers or their families. These people were slaves by virtue of being slaves; there were no racial, ethnic, or physical markers of slavery or sub- sistence servitude. Such was the situation that the Europeans encountered and traded in. When the Portuguese forged contacts with the Islamic civilizaions an traders of North Africa, they diverted much of this trade to Europe, includig the Muslin traffic in black slaves. The Portuguese, however, were not satisfied with the trade with North Africa and pushed down the wetern coast of the continent. In 1414, a group of Portuguese in West Africa discovered a villiage of black natives and, to make some money, attacke them and kidnapped as may a they could. As a result began the European traffic in black slaves. By 1800, the Portuguese were importing thousands of Africans per year into Portugal to work as indentured servants.This traffic, however, was far different from the character of the later slave trade. Techenically, the Africans were not slaves; they were indentured servants. After a period of service, they were freed. It was not possible to be born a slave in Portugal. The children of indentured servents were free. This would be the case throughout the sixteeth century. Also, slavery was not racially based. The Africans kidnapped by the Portuguese were baptized, many were educated, and they all intregated into the lower classes of Portugese society. Africans and Europeans intermarried, and to this day, most Portuguese are of mixed blood. Thus, one can assume that the migration into the Sandwich Islands, was begun by the Europeans that were sea going and the early intermarriage of the Sandwich Island natives who had come into direct contact with these European sailors. Such were the Polynesians as well. It is said that in Captain Cooks' expeditions, that his ships crews of three voyages carried servents. It is well known that Sir Joseph Banks and Thomas Richmond each had two servants of black portuguese which they acquired of the Cape Verde Islands off the West African Coast, while on the ship, Endeavor. If these men had servants, we wonder if other crewmen on the other ships carried servents as well. Here again, we surmise, that the Polynesians, who were early settlers on the Islands who had been intermarried with mixed race, were possibly the beginnings of some of the immigration of the African Americans. As there are no written records, we can only take as a surmission. As the Hawai'ian islands grew, so did the number of ships that visited the islands for water and supplies. Many were from the European countries, as for the whaling ships that came to the islands. Whaling ships came for supplies and water. Also the crews needed their rest and recreation and also to bide the time for ship repairs and such, as they could only catch the whales for only certain times of the year. The islands were an easy place to do their preparing of whales to gather the much needed oil and whale bone that was used in trade. It was said that 70% of the ships crews were of the black race, as they were cheap labor and quick to learn, and out of the watchful eye for kidnaping for Southern plantations. Some of these sailors took Hawai'ian wives and some who did not seen to have left children with Hawai'ian women who did not marry. It is said that the chiefs ( Ali'i ) of the early day were of the Polynesian race and some too, had been intermarried. Here again is the beginning of the mixed, race of the native Hawai'ian. One can look at the early art works of the islands, and can see the African resemblance of the cultures. A truely remarkable evidence that one must study. One must remember the term of African American in this study -- Term of African is where they originally came from. American is used when they became of American birth. This is commonly misquoted when one talks of the African descendant of the islands. So one could use the term Euro-Africans, Portuguese- Africans, or Polynesian Africans. Which makes the blending of the cultures so unique in the Hawai'ian Islands. So many cultures and heritages makes for a perect racial inheritance. They all made a history which today no other place could say they had the same so late, in beoming a statehood of the Americas. ++++++++++++++++++++ More of the African Americans in the Hawai'ian Islands. The ships that carried African sailors aboard when put into the Hawai'ian ports sometimes had crew members who would jump ship. Being of Afrigan descent these sailors easily blended into the rest of the culture. Sometimes they were found and were forced to return to their ships, but oft times they were not found. So these positions had to be filled. These jobs most of the time was filled with native Hawai'ians. What could be better for the Hawai'ian then to be trained on ship board and many became experienced in many fields of navigation and such. Especially during the time of the Whaling ships made port. When King Kamehameha III formed his Royal Hawai'ian band in 1835, he hired two African Americans who had great musical talent to lead it. They were America Shattuck and David Curtis. Tey were of outstanding musical talent and later went on to higher positions.in California. David Curtis, daughter later returned to the islands and she and her husband did well in ranching and she as a history writer. In 1845, the Royal Hawai'ian Band was led by African Americans, George W. Wyatt and Charles Johnson, under the directions of Henry Berger. Many crews of trading ships from various nations brought many of the early black imigrants, which consisted of run away slaves from the Americas, sailors from the Carribbean, and English ships. Many of them were navigators, blacksmiths, sail makers, musicians, barbers, cooks, and cabin boy appentices. These cabin boy apprentices were knowledgeable, as they had been taken aboard the ships to be able to learn everything about the practice of maritime achievements. It sometimes became difficult to know what the day to day life was in the islands before the 1800's because there were no records or journals kept to record them, with the exception of the Ship Captains logs. It is said that often times the Captain would fin a stowaway aboard after they left port, and nothing they could do except make that person work his passage aboard. Some returned from which they came , but others jumped ship and disapeared among the natives. Some proved their worth and others did not. Old Black Jo was a black desperado who resided in Oahu and a good friend of Gov. Boki and was involved in aiding the quarrelsome troubles between Percival of the ship, Globe ( sometimes referred to Mad Jack ) and the attack on the missionary Bingham. This will be a story told later in this study. Old Black Joe had been a long time resident in Oahu and was a trader. He was also an advisor and interpreter for the King. He died in 1828. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Contnued in Part 3 -- with some biographies. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/africana10nw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/hifiles/ File size: 11.5 Kb