Dr. Sandra Bonura 

OUTSTANDING TITLE AWARD!!! Thank you to the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) Reviewer's comments: " The use of Carrie Prudence Winter's original letters is what allows this book to become a rare primary source on topics such as: women missionaries, the last days of Hawaii's monarchy, and a long-distance 19th century courtship. Ms. Winter's use of language paints a compelling picture, engaging a reader's imagination while they learn of a world few knew so intimately."—Stacey Hayman

UNIVERSITY PRESSES CLARIFIED (SMILE)

University presses are publishers. At the most basic level that means they perform the same tasks as any other publisher. University presses acquire, develop, design, produce, market and sell books and journals.  But while commercial publishers focus on making money by publishing for popular audiences, the university press's mission is to publish work of scholarly, intellectual, or creative merit. And, they are picky, picky, picky. So, it is an honor to be published by a UP. 

THE CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BLOG:

An Archival Trip to Hawaii Posted on November 20, 2013 by Archivist Barbara Austen

The Connecticut-Hawaii connection is still going strong. My post about Cooke's letters home led to correspondence with a descendant of Cooke, which led to correspondence with scholars of Hawaiian history and educators in both Connecticut and Hawaii. The archivist at the Kamehameha Schools, Stacy Naipo, and her assistant Candace W. Lee , have offered to have their library assistants, their partners at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and college interns transcribe Amos' letters for us (and them). This will be a great help since some of Cooke's letters contain sentences and phrases in Hawaiian, which I would never understand. I have also made contact with a descendant of Henry Obookiah's family, the person who brought Henry back to Hawaii for reburial, and a scholar in California, Sandee Bonura, who is writing about education in Hawaii and is interested in Amos Cooke. The circle widens

The Cookes had arrived in Honolulu in 1837 with the largest assemblage ever sent by the ABCFM. The company was primarily composed of married teaching teams and was charged by the American Board with Christianizing the nation through trained educators.

Amos Cooke was offered the momentous responsibility of teaching and living with the children of Hawaii's highest chiefs.

He left behind twelve leather-bound volumes of intensely private diaries full of self-admonition, frustration, and confessions that spanned his decade in the school. Amos enjoyed keeping detailed records of living with the royal "scholars," as evidenced by thousands of meticulous pages that are now nearly two centuries old.  

One incident among many occurred where royal children were punished above and beyond what a jailed criminal would have received during this time. Moses, the lineal descendant of Kamehameha I was especially treated harsh by Mr. Cooke throughout the years. One episode involved the opening of a blind to peer out into the yard by young Moses, who had been sent to his room for confinement. He was given "15 stripes on the back with a whip[i]" for that small peek outside the window. The following Saturday morning, eleven-year-old Prince Alexander and his brother, fifteen-year-old Prince Lot, were accused of withholding the "whole truth" on some incidental matter. Amos recorded that he used his "rawhide whip" to administer an astounding fifteen "stripes" on future King Kamehameha IV and twenty stripes on the future King Kamehameha V.

The Cookes ultimately educated sixteen royal children, five of whom became the last rulers of the Hawaiian Kingdom from 1855 to 1903, namely: Alexander Liholiho, Lot Kamehameha, William Lunalilo, David Kalakaua, and Lydia Liliuokalani. King Kalakaua and his sister Liliuokalani would be the last of the ruling monarchs.

I have just finished editing 15 years of his diaries. MY OH MY! I now wonder what I should do with this "hot mess." These royal children were abused. No doubt about it.