Westfield's Hawaiian Missionaries in the Nineteenth Century

In the Mission's early years, the Islands' reputation as sites of moral depravity as well as the assumption that the realities of distance and disease would isolate the missionaries for years led to the American Board adopting a policy that it would only support married workers. Because on...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHistorical journal of Massachusetts Vol. 49; no. 1; pp. 142 - XI
Main Authors Brown, Robert, Dodge, L. Mara
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Westfield Westfield State University 01.01.2021
Institute of Massachusetts Studies
Subjects
19th century
American history
Bingham, Sybil Moseley
Christianity
Missionaries
Religious conversion
Wives
Hawaii
New York
Massachusetts
Connecticut
New England
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Summary:In the Mission's early years, the Islands' reputation as sites of moral depravity as well as the assumption that the realities of distance and disease would isolate the missionaries for years led to the American Board adopting a policy that it would only support married workers. Because only two of the men were married at the time of ordination, the rest had to quickly find wives who were willing to leave home and family for an 18,000-mile voyage into the unknown. The center of community life was the established Congregational church and the highly respected Westfield Academy next door that attracted young scholars from throughout New England.5 While legally separate from the church, the majority of the Academy's trustees were local Congregational ministers, and the pastor of the Westfield church was usually the chair of the trustees as well as either the principal, or a member of the faculty, in the school. CHAMBERLAIN, THURSTON, GULICK, AND BALDWIN On board the Thaddeus, the mission's very first ship, were seven other missionary couples, six of whom had similarly met and married within the previous two months.7 The last and longest-married couple, Daniel (17821860) and Jerusha Chamberlain (1787-1877), had five young children with them.8 Each couple was allotted a 6' x 6' x 5' space below deck for themselves, all their personal possessions, and provisions necessary to keep them for a year. The Chamberlains had to keep four of their five children in the same space. Since none of the Mission families had been to sea before, it was only after weeks at sea when the last of them recovered from seasickness.
ISSN:0276-8313