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Western Daughters in Eastern Lands British Missionary Women in Asia
Rosemary Seton
Book Code: GWP017
ISBN: 1-84645-017-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-84645-017-4
Greenwood World Publishing
Publication: 12/30/2008
UK Publication: 30/10/2008
List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £25.00)
Availability: Not yet published. (Estimated publication date, 12/30/2008)
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: By the early twentieth century, women missionaries from Britain had begun to outnumber their male counterparts. Hundreds of them (either married or, increasingly, single) travelled to locations in distant Asia, often remote and inhospitable, where they devoted themselves to a spiritual mission of spreading the Word, and a practical one of teaching and healing. Individually and collectively, their story is an extraordinary one. But until now it has largely been ignored. In this book, Rosemary Seton has drawn on memoirs, letters, diaries and mission records, to create a unique and fascinating history of the British women whose sense of vocation took them to the East. She covers the period from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, examining the role of women missionaries in a range of locations in South Asia, China and India. The focus is primarily on Protestant missionaries, since most British missionary women of this period were Anglicans, Baptists, Congregationalists and Methodists, but Catholics are also included. She describes how the women were assessed for their suitability by officials of the Missionary Societies, and follows their journeys to their new homes, where they set up elementary schools, ran makeshift hospitals, administered orphanages and taught in colleges. Much of their work was with children and women; British missionaries were among the first Westerners to make contact with Islamic and Hindu women in purdah. Following their vocation, the missionary women suffered tremendous hardships - of poverty, climate and political oppression - and often strugged to cope with mental and phyical stresses. Yet they perservered. Notable heroines of the mission emerged, such as Mildred Cable, Gladys Aylward (played by Ingrid Bergman in the movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness) and Amy Carmichael, but hundreds of other, anonymous women played their part in this extraordinary but largely unknown encounter with the women and children of the East.
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