William Richards in Hawaii

WEEK 7

William Richards had both political and religious impacts in Hawaii. He was among the people that pushed for a constitutional monarchy in Hawaii. He subsequently became the minister for public instruction. Despite his involvement in politics, William Richards initially arrived in Hawaii as a missionary. His sermons, however, were not so popular because of the language barrier. 

Before the influx of foreigners, Hawaiians did not believe in owning land since it was nature and thus scared. However, they took it upon themselves to guard and protect it. With the new constitution came some issues one of them being the need to divide the land and place it under certain leadership. This leadership was meant to ensure it is tended and taxes are paid. The Mahele is the land redistribution system that was created by the king to oversee this new transition. This was also meant to ensure land is not lost to foreigners, something that eventually happened.

After the arrival of Captain Cook and other foreigners now discovering Hawaii, new diseases was bound to be one of the biggest problems. Before the foreigners, Hawaii was an isolated island enjoying peace and tranquility with fewer pathogens and fewer diseases. After they came, the new diseases introduced could not be treated by native medicine. This led to a weakening of native plant and animal population in Hawaii. The Hawaiians now needed hospitals that could handle diseases such as measles, malaria, pertussis and STI’s, since they didn’t have experience with this.

Gerrit Judd is one of the people who introduced education on the island. He helped build the first medical school. Other than this, he was very close to the king and would be his translator. Their relationship was so close and full of mutual trust that Judd was both the king’s advisor and translator.