Leprosy, politics, and the rise of Hawaii's reform party

Abstract

When leprosy became a Hawaiian concern in 1863, the monarchy initiated segregation as a temporary measure to eliminate the disease through quarantine. As the island economy grew, primarily through the sugar industry, foreigners dominated commercial enterprises and increasingly took charge of government affairs. Mounting tension between native and non‐native, as power shifted from one to the other during the reform period, was manifest in the partisan polarisation on leprosy. The disease, which afflicted Hawaiians in greater numbers than it did other races, was politicised by whites to confirm their conviction that natives were physically and morally inferior, not only to Euro‐American residents, but also to the Asians they imported for plantation labour. The oppressive measures taken in segregating ‘lepers’ signalled to native Hawaiians a loss of control over land, resources, and ultimately, their lives.

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