Introduction

Introduction

The purpose of this introduction is to give you some background information and insight into how the Memoirs came about. In the eighteen-hundreds few Christian movements or endeavors brought more people to Christ than "The Memoirs of Henry Obookiah".

The Memoirs changed the way the white man thought about the dark man, and the way the dark man thought about God. Civilized people thought the "heathen" could not learn or understand the God of the Bible. But then they met Henry Obookiah, a brown man from a "heathen" land, who could out-think, out-spell, and out-read most of the civilized folks he met.

Henry Obookiah was not a proud man but humble and always presenting himself as a Christian. He was the first Hawaiian to become a Christian. His actual name in Hawai'ian is Opukaha'ia which means "stomach split open." We can only speculate as to the reason for such a name. Perhaps a chief's wife had a child born by Caeserean section and Opukaha'ia was given that name to commemorate the event.

The ship captain probably gave him the name of Henry. It was a practice to give Hawai'ians English names, as they were easier for the white people to pronounce and remember. The New Englanders gave Henry the name Obookiah as it was the way his original name sounded to them. In his letters and other documents, he signed his name as Henry Obookiah.

After he arrived in New England, Henry was found by Edwin Dwight weeping while sitting on the steps of Yale college. He was crying because he had no one to teach him. Edwin was so moved by Henry that he began teaching him how to read and write. Later he introduced him to his father Timothy Dwight who was the president of Yale collage. And so Henry's education began on the steps of Yale. Henry was an exceptional scholar. He translated the Book of Genesis from Hebrew into Hawai'ian, and was also working on a Hawai'ian dictionary, grammar, and spelling book shortly before his death.

Henry was a powerful evangelist in the New England area. He inspired and touched hundreds of individuals. He awakened them to the need of sending missionaries to Hawai'i. Large sums of money were donated for the Hawai'ian mission because of Henry's speeches and sermons. It is safe to say that the Foreign Mission Society received much of it's funding because of Henry's anointed sermons.

Everyone assumed that Henry was chosen to be the one to bring the Kingdom ^{of Hawai'i to Christianity. But alas on February 17th,1818
at the age of 26}^{Henry
died and
so did the hope of evangelizing Hawai'i. At Henry's funeral, Lyman Beecher said
in his sermon:}

^{"We thought surely this is he who
shall comfort Owhyhee}^{(Hawai'i) …We
bury with his dust in the grave all our high raised hopes of his future activity
in the cause of Christ."}

^{The Christian community was so devastated
by this Hawai'ian man's death . . . one who they loved so dearly . . . that they
deeply etched these words into his tombstone:}

^IN

^Memory
of

^{HENRY
OBOOKIAH}

^{a
native of}

^OWHYHEE.

^{His
arrival in this country gave rise}

^{to
the Foreign mission school,}

^{of
which he was a worthy member.}

^{he
was once an Idolater, and was}

^{designed
for a Pegan Priest: but by}

^{the
grace of God and by the prayers}

^{and
instructions of pious friends,}

^{he
became a Christian.}

^{He
was eminent for piety and}

^{missionary
Zeal. When almost prepared}

^{to
return to his native Isle to preach the}

^{Gospel,
God took to himself. In his last}

^{sickness,
he wept and prayed for Owhyhee,}

^{but
was submissive. He died without fear}

^{with
a heavenly smile on his}

^{countenance
and glory in his soul.}

^{Feb, 17, 1818;}

^{aged 26}
^{As the voice of Abel's blood cried to God from the earth, so
was the death of Obookiah crying to God for Hawai'i. Shortly after Henry's
death, Edwin Dwight, Henry's friend and teacher was now to become his
biographer. He began by collecting letters that Henry had written and other
biographical information from Henry's many friends. Just a few months after his
death, the "Memoirs of Henry Obookiah" was published.
The book was a best seller that touched the heart of a
nation. Farms were sold and the money donated to the Foreign Mission School
which would not have existed if not for Henry. This large influx of funding to
the Mission School was able to send missionaries to many nations. The Memoirs
were eventually published in three languages. Woman and men solicited for
marriage so that they may be considered to be sent as missionaries to Hawai'i
and other lands. All of the first company of missionaries to Hawai'i were
inspired to leave their comfortable lives in New England for a life in Hawai'i.
And so the dream, the cry, of Henry Obookiah became the dream of thousands.
C. Scott Berg}