Academic literature on the topic 'American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. North China Mission'

With money raised from children, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions purchased a ship in 1856 to support a mission to Micronesia. Drawing from children’s literature, newspaper articles, pamphlets, and missionaries’ letters, this article follows the “Children’s Mission Ship,” or Morning Star, from Boston to Ebon Atoll in the Pacific. It argues that missionaries viewed the Pacific not as a border or vast empty space, but rather as a “sea of islands” and as contiguous with “missionary settler archipelagos” throughout the Hawaiian Islands and North American continent. The article further argues that stories from the ship and the Micronesian mission helped forge a multi-generational capitalist and Protestant public that enacted and enabled subsequent American missionary and United States imperial expansion in the Pacific. This article is part of a special issue of Pacific Historical Review, “Religion in the Nineteenth-Century American West.”

AbstractIn the context of the life and missionary career of Peter Parker, M.D., a graduate of Yale who went to China in 1834, this article looks first at three issues: Who was the first medical missionary? Who was the first medical missionary in China? Who first introduced Western medicine in China?It also considers the tensions in the emerging understanding of the role of a medical missionary in the mid-nineteenth century, and the problems this caused for Parker, which led to his dismissal by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.It then assesses the role of Parker as an American diplomat, when he became involved, first as a part-time secretary and interpreter, and confidential advisor, for the U.S. Commissioner to China, and helped to negotiate the first treaty between China and the United States in 1844. And later when Parker himself was appointed as the US Commissioner, and proposed aggressive military action against China, which led to his recall by the US State Department.Finally, in retirement for 30 years in Washington, DC, Parker received numerous honors and recognition, including appointment as a corporate member of the American Board, which earlier had terminated him as a missionary. Jetant un regard sur la vie et la carrière missionnaire de Peter Parker, M.D., diplômé de Yale parti en Chine en 1834, cet article pose d'abord trois questions: Qui a été le premier missionnaire médecin? Qui a été le premier missionnaire médecin en Chine? Qui a le premier introduit la médecine occidentale en Chine?Il considère aussi les tensions à l'œuvre dans la conception progressive du rôle d'un missionnaire médecin au milieu du dix-neuvième siècle, et les problèmes que cela a causé à Parker, allant jusqu'à la démission de ses fonctions par le Bureau américain des Missions étrangères.Il évalue ensuite le rôle de Parker comme diplomate américain lorsqu'il entra en scène d'abord comme secrétaire-interprète à temps partiel et conseiller particulier du Haut-commissaire américain pour la Chine, et qu'il aida à négocier le premier traité entre la Chine et les Etats-Unis en 1844. Et plus tard, lorsque Parker fut lui-même nommé Haut-commissaire américain et proposa une action militaire agressive contre la Chine, ce qui conduit à son rappel par le Département d'Etat américain.Finalement, retiré pendant trente ans à Washington, D.C., Parker reçut reconnaissance et de nombreux honneurs, y compris sa nomination au Bureau américain qui l'avait démis comme missionnaire quelques années auparavant. Im Zusammenhang mit dem Leben und der Missionslaufbahn des Arztes Peter Parker, einem Absolventen von Yale, der 1834 nach China ging, beleuchtet dieser Artikel eingangs drei Fragen: Wer war der erste ärztliche Missionar? Wer war der erste ärztliche Missionar in China? Wer hat die westliche Medizin als erster in China eingeführt?Der Artikel behandelt auch die Spannung zwischen dem damals entstehenden Begriff der Aufgabe eines ärztlichen Missionars Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts und den Problemen, die er für Parker bedeutete und die zu seiner Entlassung vom American Board of Commissioners für auswärtige Mission führte.Dann bewertet der Artikel die Rolle Parkers als amerikanischer Diplomat, als er zuerst als Teilzeit Sekretär, Übersetzer und geheimer Berater für den US Commissioner in China arbeitete und ihm half, 1844 den ersten Vertrag zwischen China und den USA auszuhandeln. Und später, als Parker selbst zum US Commissioner bestellt wurde und eine aggressive militärische Vorgangsweise gegen China vorschlug, was zu seiner Abberufung durch das US State Department führte.Schließlich, über 30 Jahre im Ruhestand in Washington D.C., erhielt Parker zahlreiche Ehren und Anerkennung, eingeschlossen seine Berufung als Vollmitglied des American Board, das ihn früher als Missionar abgesetzt hatte. En el contexto de la vida y carrera misionera de Peter Parker, M.D., un graduado de la universidad Yale que fue a China en 1834, este artículo examina primero tres asuntos: ¿Quién era el primero misionero médico? ¿Quién era el primero misionero médico en China? ¿Quién era el primero para introducir medicina Occidental en China?También considera las tensiones en el entendimiento desallorrando del papel de un misionero médico en el siglo medio-decimonono, y los problemas éstas causó para Parker, que llevó a su despido por el Junta Norteamericano de Comisionados de las Misiones Extranjeras.Luego el articulo evalúa el papel de Parker como un diplomático norteamericano, cuando llegó a ser ocupado, primero como una secretaria de la jornada incompleta e intérprete, y consejero confidencial, para el EE.UU. Comisionado a China, y ayudó negociar el primer tratado entre China y los Estados Unidos en 1844. Y más tarde cuando Parker que se fijó como el Comisionado estadounidense, y se propuso acción agresiva militar contra China, que resultó en su revocación por el EE.UU. Departamento Estatal.Finalmente, durante su jubilación de 30 años en Washington, D.C., Parker recibió honores numerosos y reconocimiento, incluso su nombramiento como un miembro corporativo de la Junta Norteamericana, que más temprano lo había terminado como un misionero.

This chapter describes how thinking about American foreign missions provides an essential reminder of the sometimes hidden or overlooked role of religion in the history of foreign relations and policy. Accordingly, attention to foreign missions reveals the multiple ways that religious belief and priorities could shape political strategies. In foreign missionaries, one can see a group of early nineteenth-century Americans who had a grand plan for the role of the United States in the world. The United States was, in their view, one of the two seats of “true religion” in the world and accordingly it had a duty to lead the rest of the world toward a particular type of Christianity and “civilization.” This can be seen in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions’ (ABCFM) general process of location selection as well as their early efforts in China, which they saw as a key strategic location in the overall project of the conversion of the world. Similar dynamics were at work in all of the board’s mission stations, but the particular interest that missionaries, merchants, and diplomats had in relations with China make it a particularly apt location for considering missionary and grand strategy.

Abstract America was a field for foreign missions long before the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (A.B.C.F.M) sent the first American missionaries overseas. Missions to North America were predominantly, though by no means exclusively, aimed at the conversion of Native Americans, and Indian missions continued long after foreign operations commenced. The A.B.C.F.M. itself maintained extensive missions to the North American Indians throughout the period of this study. Foreign missions and Indian missions were organized into separate departments in 1832, but that does not mean they were regarded as distinctly different types of mission work. In the eyes of the missionaries, ‘‘heathenism’’ possessed an essential unity. All heathens were similarly possessed by mental stagnation and moral degradation—to different degrees, perhaps, but always owing to their ignorance of gospel truth. That was one indispensable justification for missions in the first place.