Paul Kanoa

Biography[edit]

Kanoa was born around the year 1802 in Kahaluu in South Kona on the island of Hawaii. His parents were Kapuohoula and Kepaa.^[1][2] His family descended from the Molokai chiefess Kaneʻalai.^[3] Kekūanaōʻa, the father of Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V, and Boaz Mahune, the author of the Hawaiian Declaration of Rights of 1839, were his cousins.^[4][5] In his youth, Kanoa lived for a time with Gerrit P. Judd, an American missionary and advisor to King Kamehameha III, and also accompanied Rev. Hiram Bingham I on two missionary trips to Kauaʻi.^[6][7]


He started his political career as a secretary of his cousin Kekūanaōʻa, the Governor of Oʻahu.^[8] In 1842, Kanoa was elected along with L. Kolona Halaʻi as Oʻahu's representative to Legislature of Hawaii at Lahaina, the capital at the time. Kanoa served as a clerk in the 1842 session of the legislature.^[9][10] In 1845, he was appointed an official member of the House of Nobles, the upper house of the legislature. In order to replace the diminishing number of aliʻi nui, it was decided on April 2, 1845, to vote lower-ranking chiefs who were "men of learning" into the council and elevate their chiefly statuses. Kanoa was among the first group of six lesser chiefs chosen.^[11][12] He also served as a member of the Privy Council from October 21, 1846, to February 23, 1874. In 1847, Paul Kanoa was appointed to succeed Princess Kekauʻōnohi as the Royal Governor of Kauaʻi, a position he held until his resignation on January 4, 1877. Unlike his predecessors who ruled like conquerors, his rule, although firm, was characterized by cooperation with the resurgent native chiefs of Kauaʻi. During this period, the sugar industry became the dominant enterprise on the island and businessmen such as Paul Isenberg and William Hyde Rice profited from close affiliation with Governor Kanoa.^[6][13] In his long political career, Kanoa served under the reigns of five monarchs: Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V, Lunalilo and Kalākaua.