In the late eighteenth century, Hawai'i's ruling elite employed
sophisticated methods for resisting foreign intrusion. By the
mid-nineteenth century, however, American missionaries had gained a
foothold in the islands. Jennifer Thigpen explains this important
shift by focusing on two groups of women: missionary wives and
high-ranking Hawaiian women. Examining the enduring and personal
exchange between these groups, Thigpen argues that women's
relationships became vital to building and maintaining the
diplomatic and political alliances that ultimately shaped the
islands' political future. Male missionaries' early attempts to
Christianize the Hawaiian people were based on racial and gender
ideologies brought with them from the mainland, and they did not
comprehend the authority of Hawaiian chiefly women in social,
political, cultural, and religious matters. It was not until
missionary wives and powerful Hawaiian women developed
relationships shaped by Hawaiian values and traditions--which
situated Americans as guests of their beneficent hosts--that
missionaries successfully introduced Christian religious and
cultural values.
Incisively written and meticulously researched, Thigpen's book
sheds new light on American and Hawaiian women's relationships,
illustrating how they ultimately provided a foundation for American
power in the Pacific and hastened the colonization of the Hawaiian
nation.