Evangelist or Homemaker? Mission Strategies of Early Nineteenth-Century Missionary Wives in Burma and Hawaii

Dana Robert

ne of the hallmarks of American Protestant mission sionary movement over the role of the missionary wife was the O work abroad has been its inclusion of women from the product of the experiences of missionaries in specific contexts, beginning. When the first five men commissioned by the Ameri­ not merely a reflection of stateside arguments over domesticity can Board departed for Indiain 1812,three wereaccompaniedby and women's spheres. their wives. The inclusion of women in the mission force, albeit In order to demonstrate how context and mission structure as "assistant missionaries," was a startling departure from the impacted the emerging theories and practice of American mis­ usual American idea that a missionary was a loner like David sionary wives, a comparison will be made of antebellum women Brainerd, bereft of family for the efficiency of the mission work. missionaries in Burma (Myanmar) and the Sandwich Islands Despite the public outcry against the horrible dangers that pre­ (Hawaii). Burma and the Sandwich Islands were the most suc­ sumably awaited them, Ann Judson, Roxana Nott, and Harriet cessful mission fields respectively of the American Baptists and Newell took their places in the pioneer group of foreign mission­ the American Board (Congregationalists and Presbyterians) in aries from the United States. the early nineteenth century. Both fields experienced mass con­ Not only was opinion divided over whether women should versions of tribal jungle peoples. The roles played by the Baptist be permitted to go to the mission field, but arguments continued and Congregational women, however, differed in the two con­ for forty years over the proper role of the missionary wife. texts. Granting that the "Go" of the Great Commission applied to womendid notsolve the disputes over their role. The missionary Baptist Women in Burma chargegivenbeforedepartureto HarrietNewellandAnnJudson by PastorJonathanAllencommandedthemto evangelizewomen American Baptists acquired their first foreign missionaries by to whom their husbands could get little access. He encouraged chance. Adoniram and Ann Judson, now revered as Baptist the missionarywives to teach womenthat they"stand upona par saints, began their missionary careers as Congregationalists sent with men." One of the goals of the missionary wives would be to with the first group of American Board missionaries in 1812. "raise" the women's"character to the dignity of rational beings." Bible study on shipboard convinced Adoniram Judson of the Pastor Allen expected the missionary wives to be educators, necessityofbeliever'sbaptism.After arrivingin India,the [udsons evangelists of women, and crusaders for New England-style wereimmersedby WilliamCarey.'Consequently,in 1814Ameri­ women's equality.' can Baptists held a missionary convention and adopted the Allen's ambitions for the missionary wife were soon tem­ [udsons as their first missionaries. Already, in June of 1813, the pered by the hard realities of missionary life in a foreign culture. [udsons had obtained passage to Burma, thus opening the mis­ By 1840, missionary pioneer William Goodell of Turkey was sion field for American Baptists, even before American Baptists arguing that the typical missionary wife found raising a family in agreed to support them in 1814. an alien culture so difficult that only the exceptional wife should Once settled in Burma, the [udsons began to study the be expected to engage in teaching or other active mission work. Burmese language with the goal of communicating the Gospel to Devotion to her family was the best way a missionary wife could the Burmese, both in oral form and through translating the Bible. witness to Christ. Whether the missionary wife "looketh well to In view of his perceived central role as translator of the Bible into the ways of her household" indicated whether the missionary Burmese,Adoniramspentall dayin languagestudy. AnnJudson's family was a successful example of Christian living for the surrounding culture.' Goodell spoke for many when he argued that the test of the missionary wife was the missionary family. Ann Judson was an Americanhistorians have argued thatwith the development of industrialization in the early nineteenth century, married evangelist, schoolteacher, middle-class women increasingly were confined to domestic pioneer Bible translator, roles. An ideology of domesticity emerged from the interaction of evangelical religion and industrial capitalism." Although and savior of her husband, women in the mission field kept in touch with the changing roles Adoniram. of women at home, I contend here that disputes over the proper role of the missionary wife did not emerge solely from changing roles of women in the United States. The character of the mission goal for her own ministry in Burma was to open a school for field itself affected the role of the missionary wife. Life on the children where she could both educate children and guide them mission field and the structure of the missions deeply influenced toward conversion. After the Judsons moved to Ava in February how American wives participated in mission and how they of 1824, Ann began a school for three small girls. interpreted what they did. The internal debate within the mis- In their fourth year in Burma, the [udsons began to receive inquiries about the Christian religion. Ann gathered together a group of female inquirers into a Sabbath Society where she read to them the Bible and tried to tell them about Cod," In 1819 the Dana Robert, acontributing editor, is Associate Professor ofInternational Mission [udsons erected a zayat, a native-style preaching house where at Boston University School of Theology. peoplecould dropin for religiousconversation. WhileAdoniram

4 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH discussed religion with the men, Ann met with the women, Eliza Grew Jones was first appointed to Burma with her visiting, praying, and talking with them. She held a regular husband in 1830,and she carried on the Siamese translation work Wednesday evening prayer meeting with interested women," pioneered by Ann Judson. Her first large work was a Siamese­ Ann assisted Adoniram in his translation work by translat­ English dictionary that she completed in December of 1833 after ing several tracts into Burmese and by translating the Books of she was transferred to Siam. A few years later, she devised a plan Daniel and Jonah. She also wrote a catechism in Burmese. But in for writing Siamese in a Romanized script. Before she died, she 1817she becameinterestedin the manySiamese(Thai)in Rangoon had translated two large portions of the Pentateuch and had and began to study their language. Her translation of the Gospel written an importantschoolbookfor the Siamese. She also visited of Matthewin 1819was the first translationof the Scriptures into jungle villages, reading the Bible to groups of men, women, and Siamese. She also put the Burmese catechism and a tract into children and answering their questions about doctrine. To her, Siamese. In translating a Siamese sacred book into English in ,itinerant evangelism was "the most delightful employment in 1819, she endeavored to introduce Westerners to Siamese reli­ 'which I have ever been engaged."!' Eliza found herself strug­ gious writings," glingwith the expectationthatshe, as a woman,shouldalso teach Unrestricted by precedent and unhampered by the expecta­ small children, an occupation she felt was "small business/"! tions of other missionaries, AnnJudson's earlyaccomplishments Two of the most outstanding jungle evangelists among the as a missionary wife cannot be stereotyped. In addition to child­ Baptist wives were Deborah Wade and Calista Vinton. The birth and child care and running a household in a foreign Wades were among the first recruits to assist the Judsons. After country, she did evangelistic work, ran a small school, and was the death of Ann Judson, Deborah Wade took over her school a pioneer Bible translator into two languages. It was not her missiological contributions, however, that made Ann judson's name a household word in the United States after war broke out Deborah Wade's between the British government and Burma in May of 1824: it was her status as heroine and savior of her husband. As an Wednesday prayer English speaker, Adoniram Judson was imprisoned and tor­ meetings for women were tured. Ann, with herchildren, followed her husband from prison to prison and preserved his and several others' lives by bribing so well attended that the officials and providing him food. In February of 1826 the British Burmese began to call won the war and released the European prisoners. Ann Judson died soon after at age thirty-eight, worn out from her hardships. Wednesday the "female The life of Ann Judson provided a powerful model for the Sabbath." succeeding Baptist missionary wives. Although Ann's own mis­ sion theory made teaching women and girls a personal priority, the reality was that she and her husband were not with other work and the care of her daughter. But she soon learned that missionaries most of the time and found themselves functioning "there was a more urgent work than that of the school." As a few as a team. Ann's accomplishments in education were overshad­ Burmese began to come to Christ, Deborah threw herself into owed by the evangelistic and Bible translation work she shared public evangelistic work with the women." with her husband. Her role as savior of her husband also vali­ Once members of the Karen tribes grew interested in Chris­ dated a public role for the missionary wife that lifted her above tianity, Mr. and Mrs. Wade became evangelists to their jungle the connotations of mere "assistant missionary." villages. Scaling mountains, walking by foot on narrow moun­ The combination of translation and evangelistic work exem­ tain paths, and riding bamboo rafts, the Wades went deeper and plified by Ann Judson became a hallmark of the outstanding deeper into the jungles. While Mr. Wade itinerated further, Mrs. Baptist missionary wives in Burma. The urgency to do itinerant Wade remained alone in the small villages for weeks at a time, evangelistic work grew once the non-Buddhist Karen peoples of reading and teaching men, women, and children from the Bible. the Burmese jungles began to respond to the Gospel in the 1830s. After he returned from weeks of itinerating, Mr. Wade examined The missionarypioneeramongthe Karens wasGeorgeBoardman. and baptized the candidates that she had trained." For many After his death in 1831, his wife Sarah Hall Boardman took his years, the Wades continued their pattern of jungle itineration place by itinerating for three years among the jungle Karens, during the dry seasons and more settled educational work preaching in Burmese, herlittle boyGeorge in tow. 8 According to during the rainy seasons. Although they preferred to work as a herbiographer, she several times"conducted the worship of two team, they were such valuable jungle evangelists that they were or three hundred Karens, through the medium of her Burmese forced to itinerate separately, each taking a younger missionary interpreter; and such was her modest manner of accomplishing of the opposite sex as an assistant. the unusual task, that even the most fastidious were pleased."? After twenty-sevenyearsof pioneermissionwork,the Wades She also established a system of village and station schools that settled down into stationary work among the Burmese, and became a model. Boardman gave up her role as itinerant evange­ Deborah Wade resumed mission work primarily among women list and preacher when, after the death of Ann Judson, she while her husband concentrated on the training of Burmese married Adoniram Judson. As the second Mrs. Judson, she pastors. Her Wednesday evening prayer meeting was so well concentrated on bearing and raising their children. But because attended that the mission had to change the day because the nobody was working in the Peguanlanguage, she translated into Burmese were beginning to call Wednesday the "female Sab­ it a number of tracts, a life of Christ, and parts of the New bath."ls Deborah Wade was a successful missionary partly be­ Testament. Before her final illness of "wastingdisease," her daily cause of her close relationships with the common people estab­ routine consisted of sitting at a table with her language helpers, lished over forty-five years.~..Her language skills were excellent, doing translations while her children played in the adjoining and she and her husband spent 1833 at the Baptist seminary in room.'? Hamilton, New York, training future Baptist missionaries in

JANUARY 1993 5 both Burmese and Karen. She also lived with the people rather substituting in their place a mission theory that centered on the than above them. "Renouncing all luxuries, wearing only the Christian home. plainest clothing, and reducing the furniture of her room even Whereas the Baptistwives in Burma felt encouragedby their belowthings necessary, she felt betterqualified to be an advocate context and the shortage of male personnel to engage in mission of and an example to the poor."16 activities generally considered the responsibility of men, the Calista Vinton was one of the missionaries-in-training who Congregationalist wives in the Sandwich Islands gradually re­ studied Karen with the Wades in 1833. In 1834 she and her linquished their early goals. Because the favorable climate of husband sailed to Burma and were able to go straight to the Hawaii permitted the survival of large numbers of children, the jungle for itineration because they already knew the language. missionary wives were preoccupied by family needs. Shocked Because of the great need for evangelists, the Vintons soon by the customs of the Hawaiians, missionary women felt they separated. Each taking native assistants, they preached from needed to protect their children from contact with the indig­ Karen village to village. Unlike DeborahWade, who insisted that enous population." Another factor that helped to shape the whatshe was doing was not "preaching," Calista Vinton felt that mission theory of the women was the presence of so many hervocationto preachthe Gospelwasas strongas herhusband'S.17 missionaries-by1858, a total of 162 missionary menand women DeborahWadeandCalistaVintonspenttimeteachingthe Karens had arrived from America. With so many missionaries, women to read, both because the Karens were very eager to read and had to leave itinerantevangelism to themenand focus instead on because the missionaries demanded that young people who "home visitation." The relatively large number of missionary desired baptismbe literate. But Calista Vinton's primarycall was wives also meant that a critical mass of women could develop a to itinerant evangelism, a work she continued alone even after uniquely female mission identity in a way that was probably not the death of her husband. possible for the wives in Burma. Despite tensions over the appropriate role for women in The overall strategy of the Hawaii mission was to translate ministry, the Baptist missionary women in Burma did every­ the Scriptures into the native language and to begin schools in thing the male missionaries did except administer the sacra­ which to teach people how to read the Bible. Through the means ments and presideas a permanentpastorof a church. Converting of translation, Christian education, and the preaching of the people to salvation in Christ was the top priority for both male Gospel, the missionaries hoped to convert the Hawaiians to and female missionaries, and the eagerness of the Karens for the Christianity. In the words of Sarah Lyman, who arrived as a Gospel meant that women missionaries had to give direct evan­ missionary wife in 1832, "Believing as we did, that the way to gelistic work their full attention. Although AnnJudson believed converta nation was to give them the Bible in their ownlanguage that schools were the key to the elevation of women in Burma, ... the easiest way of getting it into circulation, was to introduce school work was not the only mission strategy for the Baptist it into schools."?' The women of the mission expected that their women. Some women with families who were stationed in large part in the strategy would be to provide support services for the towns concentrated not on direct evangelism but on running missionary men and to instruct women and children in the small schools, holding mothers' meetings, and doing "female schools. work." Sarah Comstock, for example, ran a school, gave medi­ The journals of the wives during the early years tell a story cine to the sick, conversed with women about their souls, did a of increasing fatigue in dealing with primitive conditions and little translation work, and educated her own children." But in growing families. A great partof the fatigue and discouragement the pioneer phase of Baptist work, particularly of the Karen resulted not from the failure of the mission but from the fact that mission, the need of the mission was for itinerant evangelists­ the indigenous Hawaiians were interested in every aspect of the either male or female. missionaries' lives. Instead of having to beg for access to the indigenous people, the missionary women found themselves American Board Women in the Sandwich Islands surrounded at all hours of the day by friendly and curious Hawaiians. Female chiefs made lengthy visits several times a In 1819 the first colony of American Board missionaries departed day, justto watch the missionary women and to demand sewing. for Hawaii. The leaders of the mission were Asa Thurston and For the first few years of mission work, most of the missionaries Hiram Bingham, both accompanied by wives whose personal lived together in Honolulu. Thirteen persons ate and slept and calling to missionworkwas so strong that they had married their stored all their provisions in a room twenty feet square. As the husbands in order to become missionaries themselves. Lucy wives began to have babies, the crowding grew more acute. The Thurston married her husband within three weeks of meeting unrelenting lack of privacy took its toll on missionary morale, him, and Sybil Bingham within one week. Both teachers before especially on that of the women, who were expected to mind the their marriages, Lucy and Sybil resembled Ann Judson in their hearth. educational attainments and commitment to teaching as the In 1823 Sybil Bingham wrote in her journal, "My exhausted preferred public role for missionary wives. nature droops .... I sometimes grieve that I can no more devote Years in the Hawaiian context, however, transformed the myself to the language, & the study of my bible. But I do not women's idea of the proper missionary role for women. Upon indulge myself in it. I believe God appoints my work; and it is reading the biography of the recently deceased Ann Judson, enough for me to see that I do it all with an eye to his glory. Lucy Thurston disagreed with Judson's remarks that the pur­ Perhaps my life may be spared to labor yet more directly for the pose of the missionary wife was to be a teacher. Rather, Lucy heathen."22 Throughouthertwenty-one-yearcareeras a mission­ confided to her journal, "In our situation, I approve the motto, ary, Sybil Bingham supervised and taught school to the extent that 'The missionary best serves his generation who serves the she was able, but when from her post in Honolulu she described public, and his wife best serves her generation who serves her her missionary life, it was one of disappointment: family.' "19 By 1834, burdened by her need to protect her children from "heathenism," Lucy Thurston had given up herearlyideals My spirit is often oppressed as a day closes, busy and bustling as of imitating the women who accompanied Jesus on his mission, itmay have been, to see so little accomplished. I could never have

6 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH A S B UR Y T HEOL OG IC AL S E MI N AR Y

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Ihavecome to the conclusion to do little witha regularschool. The with worry. Finally, as an alternative to sending their children to state of things, now, is such that, with the language, one may do America, the Thurstons constructed a house with separate com­ good upon a much larger scale. A little school was the beginning partments for the children and for native visitors. Throughout of public labors-now there is such access to the rulers of the nation, and such means of multiplying schools as to make that their childhood, the Thurston children were virtual prisoners in comparatively small." the children's quarters, closely supervised and educated by their mother, kept separate from the indigenous people, and forbid­ Ready access to the people meant that missionary women could den to learn the Hawaiian language." teach informally and by example rather than having to devote Although it was to be expected that Lucy Thurston and Sybil themselves to building up schools as institutions. The wives did Bingham, the first generation of missionary wives, would have not need schools in order to have contact with the people or to had the hardest time in balancing their family responsibilities provide religious instruction. If anything, the schools were an and vocations, later missionary wives seem to have fared little extra burden on women who already felt swallowed up and better. They followed the time-consuming pattern set by the first imposed upon by an alien people and culture. For the Hawaiian wives of limiting their children's access to the natives. Lucy missionary wives, keeping school often felt like a distraction Wilcox was one of fifteen brides who arrived on the MaryFrazier from home responsibilities and from more "spiritual" mission from Boston in 1837. In 1838 she wrote home describing the work. accepted missionary wisdom regarding child rearing: Unfulfilled by school work, not needed or wanted for itiner­ ant evangelism and Bible translation, burdened by family cares, Itis necessary to have a constant watch over our children here as soon as they begin to walk and talk and to speak the native and surrounded by all-too-friendly Hawaiians, many of the language, tho the children do understand more or less of it there missionary wives developed a mission theory based on the can be no reason why they do not speak it first but, because they Christian horne." Everywhere they looked they seemed to see are not allowed to by their parents, for it is much easier for neglected children, poorsanitation, and an eagerness on the part children than our language .... Native influence is very bad for of the Hawaiian women to learn Western ways. The context children." seemed to demand most of all that the missionary women be examples to the indigenous women, showing them how to raise Within ten years of their arrival, one-third of the families theirchildrenand to createa "Christian" home. A missiontheory who arrived on the Mary Frazier had four or more children. If the based on the Christian home not only seemed to meet the needs figures from the MaryFrazier are typical for the other missionary of Hawaiian women and children, but it met the needs of the companies, then it is clear that raising large families, keeping missionary women, who wished to concentrate on caring for

8 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH their own families while simultaneously contributing to the school, in which they were called to inculcate and exemplify mission. 'whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what­ A unique woman's mission theory based on exemplifying soever things are honest, whatsoever things are of good re­ the Christian home emerged naturally and gradually in the life port."?' Mary Ellis thus took with her to Hawaii the idea that of the mission. The beginnings of it occurred when Kalakua, the missionary wives in that context should be role models, espe­ queen dowager,boarded the first missionary shipand demanded cially in family matters. Western clothing. The missionary wives held a sewing circle on In 1836 Secretary Rufus Anderson of the American Board shipboard: while they sewed Kalakua's dress, they set her four wrote an introduction to the American edition of Mary Ellis's attendants to practicing stitches on calico. The constant presence biography, entitled "On the Marriage of Missionaries." By the of crowds of Hawaiian women, observing the minutiae of the time he was writing, the American foreign mission was nearly a missionary wives' activities, made it seem natural for the wives quarter of a century old, and the difficulties of missionary life for to turn their domestic activities into object lessons for the native women had become apparent and subject to wide criticism. women. After the birth of Lucy Thurston's first child, the people Using Mary Ellis as a model, and by implication the missionary crowded around to see the first white infant in their area. Their wives in Hawaii, Anderson justified the existence of the mission­ interest was not lost on Lucy, who realized the teaching potential ary wife on the basis of the Christian home. of the moment: "There was their white teacher under new circumstances. And there was the white infant, neatly dressed in The heathen should have an opportunity of seeing christian white. A child dressed! Wonderful, most wonderful!! To witness families. The domestic constitution among them is dreadfully home scenes and the manner in which we cherished our children disordered, and yet it is as true there as everywhere else, that the seemed, in a child-like way, to draw fore their warmest affec­ character of society is formed in the family. To rectify it requires tions.T" example as well as precept." Precedentexisted for the Christian home as a mission agency in the work of British missions in the SouthSeas. In 1822William He argued that the downtrodden "heathen" wife must be taught Ellis of the London Missionary Society traveled from the Society to be a virtuous wife and mother: "She must have female teach­ Islands to Hawaii. With his knowledge of the South Pacific, he ers, living illustrations .... And the christian wife, mother, helped achieve a breakthrough in learning the Hawaiian lan­ husband, father, family, must all be found in all our missions to guage. The wives of the Hawaiian missionaries sent letters back pagan and Mohammedan countries.?" To Rufus Anderson, the to Mrs. Ellis inviting her to Oahu to work with them. Mary Ellis missionary wife had proven her worth in the South Pacific not reached Oahu in February of 1823and began to help the discour­ only by acting as a helpmate and support to her husband but by aged wives redefine their mission. modeling the Christian home, the building block of Christian In Mary Ellis, the young missionary wives of the American society. Board had as mentor an experienced missionary wife who had It is clearfrom thewordsof SecretaryAndersonandfrom the seen her mission as one of training people, especiallywomen, "in letters and journals of the Hawaiian mission wives that their the ordinary transactions of life,-more especially in their treat­ model of the Christian family was in fact that of the New England ment of children, and their training them up for the Lord." evangelical nuclear family. The early missionaries to Hawaii According to William Ellis, the British missionary wives in the lacked cross-cultural training and were products of the Yankee South Seas "felt as if the whole station or island were one vast culture. They were saddened at what they perceived to be lax

United States Catholic Missioners u.s. Catholic Mission Association

here were 5,441 Catholic missioners from the United Kenya (233). Copies of the report may be ordered from USCMA, T States serving abroad in 1992, according to the /IAnnual 3029 Fourth Street N.E., Washington, D.C. 200.17. Cost: $6.00 Report on U.S.Catholic Overseas Mission 1992-1993," published postpaid. by the United States Catholic Mission Association. Counted in the Trends over the last thirty-two years may be seen from the survey are those who are, or have been, United States citizens by following statistics on U.S. Catholic missioners: birth or naturalization, serving for at least one year outside the 48 contiguous states. Not included are overseas workers of Catholic YEAR NUMBERof YEAR NUMBERof YEAR NUMBERof ReliefServices. Religious sisters represented the largest category MISSIONERS MISSIONERS MISSIONERS of U.S. Catholic missioners overseas (41%), compared with reli­ 1960 6612 1976 6942 1985 6026 gious priests (40%), brothers (8%), lay missioners (8%), and 1962 6994 1977 6718 1986 6007 diocesan priests (3%). 1964 7969 1978 6558 1987 6020 The major sending groups are the Jesuits with 477, the 1966 9102 1979 6405 1988 6013 Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers with 412, and the Maryknoll 1968 9447 1980 6343 1989 5950 Sisters with 331 members serving abroad. 1970 8283 1981 6281 1990 5702 There are 1,286 serving in South America, 1,163 in Asia, 949 1972 7840 1982 6201 1991 5565 in Africa, 810 in Mexico and Central America, 512 in Oceania, 431 1974 7317 1983 6298 1992 5441 in the Caribbean, and 59 in the Middle East. The individual 1975 7083 1984 6094 countries where the largest numbers are serving are Peru (387), Brazil (369), Mexico (296), the Philippines (276), Japan (247), and Reprinted with permission of the United StatesCatholic Mission Association

JANUARY 1993 9 child-rearing methods among the South Sea islanders-letting Yet even as American public opinion sought to restrict the children run free with minimal parental discipline, exposing average woman to the home, leading Baptist wives in Burma children to adult sexual activity, minimally washing and cloth­ continued to preach, to itinerate, and to translate the Bible, ing children. All these things were considered to be pagan or doing tasks that Congregationalists in Hawaii confined to men, heathen. In contrast, the missionaries felt thatthe Christianhome Perhaps the differences in the American Board and Baptist was exemplified by clean, neatly dressed and well-disciplined mission reflected the different relationship of the two denomi­ children under the care of a loving mother. To Lucy Thurston, nations to American society. The American Board self-con­ "anenlightened, piousdevoted mother" seemed to be"oneof the sciously continued the learned tradition of the Puritans and finest specimens of female pietywhich thisworld exhibits."37 The made a distinction between the ordained men of the mission missionarycontributionof themissionarywifewasnotmerelyto and the unordained, men and women alike." The class-con­ teach doctrine but to model a particular lifestyle and piety. Lucy scious traditions of the American Board confined the "impor­ Wilcox wrote a letter to her parents defending her focus on the tant" mission work of itinerant evangelism and Bible transla­ home as a form of mission service: "Perhaps you will inquire, tion to the highly educated ordained men. In contrast, the Whatcan you do besides taking care of yourchildren? Why, I can egalitarian tendencies of the early nineteenth-century Baptists, do but little at present; yet the example of rearing a family as it combined with their lower social status and lack of education should be, is just what this people need.r'" relative to Congregationalists, may have worked together to The mission theory of the Christian family was adopted in permit a larger role for women missionaries. Hawaii because it was effective and because it made a virtue out A major source of the differences between the mission of of necessity. By interpreting family life as a mission agency, the American Board and Baptist women in the early nineteenth mission wives sacralized the myriad activities that ate up their strength and their days. The theory brought order out of the unceasing round of home visitation, sewing lessons, childcare, and prayer meetings. The apparent eagerness of the indigenous The Baptists' egalitarian women to learn from the missionary wives validated for the tendencies may have led to missionaries the idea that home life was an effective agency of evangelization and civilization. a larger role for women The missionary wives of Hawaii exemplified both negative missionaries. and positive aspects of a mission theory of the Christian home. Put upon by the indigenous people, some of the wives happily retreated into the work of their large families. Ironically, they talked about the Christian family as a living model for the people century lay in the different contexts. Although both Hawaii and at the same time that they were carefully limiting the people's Burma experienced rapid church growth among tribal peoples access to their children. Their obvious concern for the well-being during the 1830s and 1840s, the high missionary mortality rate of the Hawaiian mothers and children, however, meant that and poverty of the Baptist effort compared with that of the some wives exhausted themselves in trying to improve all as­ American Board meant that there was always a shortage of pects of Hawaiian life througha holistic approachto mission that missionaries in Burma. By 1843 there were nearly thirty Karen refused to separate mind from body, or public from private. churches with 1,500 members and thousands waiting for churches to be founded, but there were only five missionaries Conclusions available for work among the Karens." It is no wonder that missionary women and indigenous workers were called upon As the excitement of the pioneer years of American foreign to do the primary evangelistic work of the Baptist mission. missions passed, and the difficulties of missionary life for fami­ American Board women in Hawaii, however, came out in lies became clear, it seems that Americans came to expect less groups and by the 1840s were incorporated into a large, stable public mission work from the missionary wife. By the 1830s, missionary community. The favorable climate of the mission New Englanders were developing ideas about children that saw guaranteed the survival not only of ordained men, who main­ them as innocents needing protection and nurture rather than as tained control over the mission, but of children, who needed miniature adults needing discipline. The perceived need of inno­ care. The structure and size of the Hawaiian missionary com­ cent children for protection and nurture meant that the home munity encouraged a differentiation of sex roles among the task of the missionary mother was so great as to leave little time missionaries: the Hawaiian missionary families held an ex­ for other mission work. Given the overwhelming nature of the tended annual gathering where the wives met and exchanged maternalresponsibilities, criticsbeganto questionagainwhether advice on child rearing, homemaking, and mission strategies. women should be missionaries. In response to these criticisms, The Hawaii wives thus gradually and corporately developed a Rufus Anderson and others used the mission theory of the mission theory of the Christian home that seemed to integrate "Christian home" as developed in the South Pacific to legitimate their dual roles as missionary women and mothers, and at the the presence of mothers on the mission field. same time justified their existence to critics back home. Notes------­ 1. For the text of Allen's sermon, see Pioneers inMission:TheEarlyMissionary 3. On the increasingly domestic role expected of American women during Ordination Sermons,Charges, andInstructions,ed. R.Pierce Beaver (Grand the transition to an industrial, capitalist society in the early nineteenth Rapids, Mich: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1966), pp. 268-78. century, see Barbara Berg, The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism. The Womanand the City, 1800-1860 (New York: Oxford Univ. 2. Quoted in E. D. G. Prime, FortyYearsin theTurkish Empire; or,Memoirsof Press, 1978); Nancy Cott, The Bondsof Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in Rev.William Goodell, D.D.,LateMissionaryoftheA.B.C.F.M.atConstantinople, New England,1780-1835 (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1977); Barbara 8th ed. (Boston: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Epstein, ThePoliticsof Domesticity: Women,Evangelism, and Temperance in 1891), p. 190. Nineteenth-CenturyAmerica(Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan Univ. Press,

10 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH CAN ONE LIFE CHANGE THE WORLD?

I:\. t the School of InterculturalStudies we are • B.A. ICS, M.A. ICS, M.A. Mi ssions, ABOVE ~ convinced that a life committed to serving D.Miss.and Ed.D. "Asa career member oj WyclifjeBibiR Translauns, Jesus Christcan impact the world in a powerful way. • Vast metropolitan area providing I'vebeen very impressed with We arc equally convi nced that in our pluralistic thepmgra mat Sl(}j. Every hundreds of opportunities for clan I'vetaken has applied world equipping for crosscultural competency in crosscultural studyand ministry tomyfield wark." ministry isvital for "making disciples of all nations." "TheICSjaculty is Stephen] . Barber. Student, D. ~t i ss . program That is whywe have assem bled a program com­ CONSIDER THESE SICS DISTINCTIVES open andsensiiiue • The onlyChristian Ed.D.degree toward interna· bining studiesin missiology wi th the social sciences, tumalstudmis designed to prepare you for allfacetsof crosscultur­ in the U.S. concentrating in and expectswomen al ministryat home and abroad. crossculturaleducation to be (l significant jarcejarministry. " LOOK AT WHAT SICS OFFERS YOU • The strongest program for Fiko Bomukai. Student • Afac ulty wi th over 125 years of combined "Women in Min istry" of any service in international missions school of world mission • University setting offering interaction with • Concentrationsin culturalanthropology, leadership, other disciplines urban ministry,andinternationaldevelopment • NewM.A. programs in TESOL (Teaching If you are a young Christian desiring foundation­ English to Speakers of Other Languages) al preparation for a life of service in today's world or and Applied Linguistics are alreadyexperienced in crosscultural ministry and looking for specialized training, the School of "E/fatille intercultural ministry callsjarthe Intercultural Studies at Bi ola University mayhave SCHOOL OF 1/'l/tRCULTl.:R.-ILSTUDIES integratian of theology andthesodalsamosin onei educationalexperience. TheSchool oj just the program you need. BIOI.A L'NIVERSflY Intercu ltural Studiesisuniquelypositilil lRd, as To findout more about the Sc hool of 13800 Bi ola Ave nue Ii1lI'ojthejour schoolsojBiola l'nivmity, 10 La Mirada, CA. 90639-D00 I offermaximumoppartunity jarthis Intercultural Studies callor write today. 1-800-652-4652 deveiopmen t totake place." (In California) 1-800-992-4652 Donald E. Douglas, Dean 1981).The ideology of "woman's sphere" as a product of particular class 20. See the descriptions of Hawaiian customs recorded in letters from Sarah and social backgrounds has been explored by Lori Ginzberg in Women Lyman, in Margaret Greer Martin, ed. and comp., Sarah Joiner Lymanof and the Workof Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in theNineteenth­ Hawaii: HerOwn Story (Hilo, Hawaii: Lyman House Memorial Museum, Century United States(New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1990). 1970), esp. pp. 43, 56-57. 4. See James D. Knowles, Memoirof Mrs. Ann H. Judson, 4th ed. (Boston: 21. Quoted in ibid., p. 198. Lincoln & Edmands, 1831), p. 73. In hindsight, it is clear that given the 22. Sybil Bingham, "Journal," typewritten 0819-23), pp. 98-99, Special Col­ expectations of lifelong marriage and her isolation from everyone except lections, Sterling Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. her husband,AnnJudsonhad no choicebutto go along withherhusband 23. Quoted from a letter from Sybil Bingham to Lydia Huntley Sigourney, in in his change of views. Baptist lore indicates that the Judsons reached Mrs. Titus Coan, "A Brief Sketch of the Missionary Life of Mrs. Sybil their change of views on baptism independently, but the evidence from Moseley Bingham" (895), p. 15, Special Collections, Sterling Library. the Knowles biography suggests otherwise. 24. Thurston, Lifeand Times, p. 77. 5. Ibid., p. 163. See also Ann Judson, An Account of the American Baptist MissiontotheBurman Empire: Ina Series ofLetters, Addressed toa Gentleman 25. See Lucy Thurston's letter to her cousin William Goodell in which she describes how she keeps her children segregated from the native popu­ in London (London: J. Butterworth & Son, 1823), p. 97. lation (ibid., pp. 100-102). For a discussion of domestic responsibilities 6. Knowles, Memoir, pp. 179-81;Judson, Account,pp. 156-57. and their impact on American Board women in Hawaii, see Char Miller, 7. For Ann Judson's account of her work in Siamese, see Knowles, Memoir, "Domesticity Abroad: Work and Family in the Sandwich Island Mission, pp. 181-82;Judson, Account,p. 158. According to Don and Chuleepran 1820-1840," in Missions and Missionaries in the Pacific, ed. Char Miller Persons, with whomI spokeon September28, 1987,at Andover-Newton (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1985), pp. 65-90. Theological Seminary, Ann Judson was the first Protestant to work 26. Ethel M. Damon, ed., Letters from the Life of Abner and Lucy Wilcox among the Thai when she attended to Thai prisoners at Ava. Her (Honolulu: Privately printed, 1950), p. 106. translations are held in the Payap University Archives, Chiang Mai, 27. Laura Fish Judd, Thailand. Honolulu: Sketches ofLifeintheHawaiian Islands from1828 to 1861, ed. Dale L. Morgan (Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1966), p. 103. 8. Robert G. Torbet, VentureofFaith: TheStoryoftheAmerican BaptistForeign Mission Society and the Woman's American BaptistForeign Mission Society, 28. Quoted in Damon, Letters, p. 163. 1814-1954, with a foreword by Jesse R. Wilson (Philadelphia: Judson 29. Quoted in Martin, Lyman,p. 74. Press, 1955), p. 49. 30. Ibid., p. 76. 9. Fanny Forester [Emily Chubbuck Judson], Memoir of Sarah B. Judson, 31. Bingham, "Journal," p. 99. Member oftheAmerican Missionto Burmah (New York: L. Colby, 1848), p. 32. For an excellent study of the struggles and stresses faced by the mission­ 170. ary wives in Hawaii, see Patricia Grimshaw, Paths of Duty: American 10. Ibid., p. 184. Missionary Wives in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii (Honolulu: Univ. of Ha­ 11. Committee of Publication, ed., MemoirofMrs. Eliza G.Jones, Missionary to waii Press, 1989). Although mission theory is not Grimshaw's interest, Burmah and Siam(Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication and Sun­ her analysis is especially helpful in showing how the missionary wives day School Society, 1842), p. 87. were trapped in particular gender roles. She notes one instance where a missionary wife pushed beyond "woman's place" to lead a revival in the 12. Ibid., p. 122. absence of the regular male missionary. For her evangelistic activities, 13. Walter N. Wyeth, The Wades: Jonathan Wade, D.D., Deborah B. L. Wade Clarissa Armstrong was reproached by the missionary community and (Philadelphia: Privately printed, 1891), p. 79. forced out of the work by the male missionaries (pp. 125-26). 14. See ibid., pp. 111-22 for description of Deborah Wade's jungle ministry. 33. Thurston, Lifeand Times, p. 63. 15. Ibid., p. 165. 34. William Ellis, Memoirof Mrs. Mary MercyEllis,WifeofRev. William Ellis, 16. Ibid., p. 163. Missionary in theSouth Seas, andForeign Secretary oftheLondon Missionary 17. Calista V. Luther, TheVintons and the Karens: Memorials of Rev.JustusH. Society, with an introduction by Rufus Anderson (Boston: Crocker & VintonandCalistaH. Vinton (Boston: W. G. Corthell, 1880),p. 25.Vinton's Brewster, 1836), p. 97. biographer felt it necessary to add that her preaching was done in 35. Rufus Anderson, "Introductory Essay on the Marriage of Missionaries," modesty and did not contradict Paul's rule that woman not "usurp in ibid., p. xi. authority over the man." 36. Ibid. 18. Daniel C. Eddy, Heroines of the Missionary Enterprise; or, Sketches of 37. Thurston, Lifeand Times,p. 111. Prominent Female Missionaries (Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850), esp. pp. 184-86. See also Mrs. A. M. Edmond, Memoirof Mrs. Sarah D. 38. Quoted in Damon, Letters, p. 115. Comstock, Missionary toArracan (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publica­ 39. For a study of the early American Board missions as an attempt to extend tion Society, 1854). the authority of the clergy and to re-create a theocracy abroad, see John 19. Lucy G. Thurston, LifeandTimesofMrs. LucyG. Thurston,WifeofRev.Asa A. Andrew III, Rebuilding the Christian Commonwealth: New England Thurston, Pioneer Missionary to the Sandwich Islands, Gathered from Letters Congregationalists andForeign Missions, 1800-1830 (Lexington: Univ. Press andJournals Extendingovera Period ofMoreThanFifty Years, 2d ed. (Ann of Kentucky, 1976). Arbor, Mich.: S. C. Andrews, 1882), p. 120. 40. Torbet, Venture, p. 66.

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