page_title: Ford Island
section_title: Sugar reciprocity
hierarchical_section_title: Ford Island / History / Sugar reciprocity
caption_attribution_description: English: Charles Reed Bishop and his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop in San Francisco in 1875.
context_page_description: Ford Island is an islet in the center of Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It has been known as Rabbit Island, Marín's Island, and Little Goats Island, and its native Hawaiian name is Mokuʻumeʻume. The island had an area of 334 acres when it was surveyed in 1825, which was increased during the 1930s to 441 acres with fill dredged out of Pearl Harbor by the United States Navy to accommodate battleships.
  It was the site of an ancient Hawaiian fertility ritual, which was stopped by Christian missionaries during the 1830s. The island was given by Kamehameha I to Spanish deserter Francisco de Paula Marín, and later returned to the monarchy. After the island was bought at auction by James Isaac Dowsett and sold to Caroline Jackson, it became the property of Dr. Seth Porter Ford by marriage and was renamed Ford Island. After Ford's death, his son sold the island to the John Papa ʻĪʻī estate and it was converted into a sugarcane plantation.
  In 1916, part of Ford Island was sold to the U.S. Army for use by an aviation division in Hawaii, and by 1939 it was taken over by the U.S. Navy as a station for battleship and submarine maintenance.
context_section_description: Sugar had been a major export from Hawaii since Captain James Cook's arrival in 1778. During the 1850s, the U.S. import tariff on sugar from Hawaii was much higher than the import tariffs Hawaiians were charging the U.S., and Kamehameha III sought reciprocity.
  As early as 1873, a United States military commission recommended attempting to obtain Ford Island in exchange for the tax-free importation of sugar to the U.S. At that time Major General John Schofield, U.S. commander of the military division of the Pacific, and Brevet Brigadier General Burton S. Alexander arrived in Hawaii to ascertain its defensive capabilities. U.S. control of Hawaii was considered vital for the defense of the west coast of the United States, and they were especially interested in Pu'uloa, Pearl Harbor. The sale of one of Hawaii's harbors was proposed by Charles Reed Bishop, a foreigner who had married into the Kamehameha family, had risen in the government to be Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and owned a country home near Pu'uloa. He showed the two U.S. officers around the lochs, although his wife, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, privately disapproved of selling Hawaiian lands. As monarch, William Charles Lunalilo, was content to let Bishop run almost all business affairs but the ceding of lands would become unpopular with the native Hawaiians. Many islanders thought that all the islands, rather than just Pearl Harbor, might be lost and opposed any cession of land. By November 1873, Lunalilo canceled negotiations and returned to drinking, against his doctor's advice; his health declined swiftly, and he died on February 3, 1874.
  Lunalilo left no heirs. The legislature was empowered by the constitution to elect the monarch in these instances and chose David Kalākaua as the next monarch. The new ruler was pressured by the U.S. government to surrender Pearl Harbor to the Navy. Kalākaua was concerned that this would lead to annexation by the U.S. and to the contravening of the traditions of the Hawaiian people, who believed that the land ('Āina) was fertile, sacred, and not for sale to anyone. In 1875, the United States Congress agreed to an additional seven years of reciprocity in exchange for Ford Island. At the end of the seven-year reciprocity agreement, the United States showed little interest in renewal.
  On January 20, 1887, the United States began leasing Pearl Harbor. Shortly afterwards, a group of mostly non-Hawaiians calling themselves the Hawaiian Patriotic League began the Rebellion of 1887. They drafted their own constitution on July 6, 1887. The new constitution was written by Lorrin Thurston, the Hawaiian Minister of the Interior who used the Hawaiian militia as threat against Kalākaua. Kalākaua was forced to dismiss his cabinet ministers and sign a new constitution which greatly lessened his power. It would become known as the "Bayonet Constitution" due to the force used.
  With support from California (because the state had profited from the import of sugar), Kalākaua again approached Congress. When the United States still seemed uninterested in reciprocity, he threatened to forge more favorable export agreements with Australia or New Zealand. Congress feared that a treaty between Hawaii and Australia or New Zealand would result in annexation by one of those countries instead of the United States. Although Kalākaua was loath to give any foreign country land in Hawaii, he signed the treaty in September 1887.
  The Oahu Sugar Company (also known as the Oahu Sugar Cane Plantation) leased about 300 acres (120 ha) from the John Papa ʻĪʻī estate (after their purchase of the island in 1891) to harvest sugar in 1899. The business was successful, and the company sublet land from Benjamin Dillingham on the Waipi'o peninsula (southeast of present Waipio) to build a 12-roller mill and railroad. Sugarcane was grown and harvested on Ford Island with a network of aqueducts from freshwater reservoirs, transported to Waipio by barge and then by rail to the mills.
  In 1902, the nearby estate of Bernice Pauahi Bishop lost a crucial lawsuit brought by the Un
caption: Charles Reed Bishop with his wife, Bernice Pauahi Bishop
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