Lili'uokalani
“For myself, I would have chosen death rather than to have signed it; but it was represented to me that by my signing this paper all the persons who had been arrested, all my people now in trouble by reason of their love and loyalty towards me, would be immediately released. Think of my position, – sick, a lone woman in prison, scarcely knowing who was my friend, or who listened to my words only to betray me, without legal advice or friendly counsel, and the stream of blood ready to flow unless it was stayed by my pen.” - Queen Lili’uokalani, on her abdication of the Hawaiian throne
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Lili’uokalani was born on September 2, 1838 in what was then the Hawaiian Kingdom. She was a hānai child, meaning she was informally adopted. She attended the Royal School, a school aimed to train and educate the children of Hawaiian royalty. Later, she was deemed eligible for the throne by King Kamehameha III. In school, Lili’uokalani met John Owen Dominis, who eventually became her husband. The marriage was not a happy one, riddled with cases of infidelity and disapproval from the Dominis family.
By the mid 19th century, Hawaii already had a growing population of white Americans living on the islands, many of them born and raised there due to missionaries seeking to spread Christianity and businessmen seeking to capitalize sugar exports. Sugar exports became such a major part of the Hawaiian economy that it began to alter those who were in power. The influence of white businessmen became so prominent to the point that David Kalākaua, Lili’uokalani’s brother and King of Hawaii at the time, gave into signing a constitution that would greatly limit his power on the islands. He had no choice; he was threatened at gunpoint. It was called the Bayonet Constitution.
Soon after Kalākaua signed the constitution, he went on a voyage to California, but upon arriving at San Francisco, his health deteriorated due to illness and died in 1891. Lili’uokalani assumed the throne and thus became the first and only queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom. While her reign lasted for less than 2 years, it was full of legislative debates and management of issues such as the smallpox outbreak, the McKinley Tariff (on Hawaiian sugar exports), and a growing opium crisis. On top of this, Lili’uokalani drafted a new constitution that would overrule the Bayonet Constitution and reclaim powers to the Hawaiian throne, but it was blocked by her ministers. The rising tensions between the queen and her political enemies led to the coup and overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 17th, 1893. Soon after, she was imprisoned in Hawaii for 3 years. It was during those years when she regularly composed some of her most famous musical works and wrote her memoir Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen.
In 1896, Lili’uokalani was released from imprisonment. She split up her time between Hawaii and Washington D.C. to seek indemnity for the overthrowing of the Hawaiian coup. In 1897, President McKinley signed the treaty for Hawaii’s annexation, but due to large, grassroots opposition, it was blocked by the Senate. A year later during the Spanish-American War, Hawaii was annexed as part of the Newlands Resolution. Lili’uokalani spent the rest of her life continuing to fight for the rights of Hawaiians while also establishing the Queen Lili’uokalani Trust to support orphans and Hawaiian rights. On November 11th, 1917, Lili’uokalani died and donated all of her wealth to the Hawaiian people.
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