Hawaii: The Stolen Lands

Was Hawaii stolen? The question is argued everywhere and answered, with documents, almost nowhere. This illustrated history tests it claim by claim.

The book follows the land from the voyaging settlers and the ahupua'a, through the Great Mahele of 1848, the sugar plantations, the 1887 constitution, the January 1893 overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani, the 1897 treaty that failed in the Senate, the 1898 Newlands Resolution, the Territory, statehood, the military, and the 1993 Apology Resolution. Seventy chapters take up each charge in turn: no treaty of cession was ever signed; the overthrow, in Cleveland's words, an act of war; annexation by joint resolution, doubted by the Justice Department's own lawyers; language, schools and the military's share of O'ahu.

Each chapter ends with The Historian's Verdict, which weighs the evidence by three tests: was it lawful under the law of its time, was there consent or coercion, and was anything paid. Hawaiian voices and settler voices are quoted from documents, and every quotation is checked or labeled unverified. Chapters also cover houses, taro terraces, fishponds, canoes, burial, plantation life and the building of the Palace, and a closing appendix shows the Hawaiian language in writing.

The author's own conclusion is stated once, in the epilogue, clearly marked as opinion. The chapters before it let the record speak.