Missionaries and the Civilising Mission Flashcards
Origins of missionary activity
From Missionary Writing and Empire, 1800-1860 by Anna Johnston
Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.
Overview
- 1784-1867, the second age, frequent missionary activity
- Seen as a means of “‘civilised’ expansionism” but often disruptive to indigenous cultures
- 10 000 by 1900 (Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
EARLY ORIGINS
- 18th century Protestant revival –> missionary zeal
- ‘People’s’, not aristocracy’s, enterprise. Central idea of charity and philanthropy
- SPG and SPCK were two earliest societies sent clergy abroad to colonies and missionaries to India and West Indies.
REVIVAL
“Overshadowed” by lay missionary societies of the evangelical revival:
- BMS 1792
- LMS 1795
- Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society 1818
SUCCESS
- Post 1830, volunteers plentiful
- Annual income of CMS was £58 655
Give one example of missionaries being ‘used’ by indigeonous peoples
- Bechuanaland missionaries in the mid 19th century: The Tswana tribe simply had to receive the Gospel, in return for the missionary’s extensive services, so this collaborative relationship seems highly advantageous.
The expansion of Xnity - what forms did it take?
Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.
- People brought their old denominations with them
- Evangelical missionary societies sponsored missionaries to convert people
EVIDENCE
- New bishoprics in Jamaica and Calcutta in early 19th Century. India, Calcutta, in 1814
Church and state
Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.
OVERVIEW OF THE NATURE OF THE RELATIONSHIP
- Sometimes a means of boosting imperial authority
- Could also be a disruptive, even subverting, influence
- sometimes “…powerful stimuli for resistance to colonial rule.”
- Popular pressure in UK –> Close alignment of church and state in imperial enterprise
EVIDENCE
- W. KNOX (SPG), COE presence “…the best Security that Great Britain can have…”
- 1804, 42% of imperial grant to Nova Scotia was to “set up a religious establishment”
- “moral leadership, social cohesion and education”…
- Trialed in North America, but used throughout empire “until the 1830s”
CHANGE IN RELATIONSHIP
- Lack of uniformity due to multiple denominations. Obvious preference for CofE
- Hard to find committed clergy
- 1840s, Expansion of empire meant it was imperative for church (namely, Anglicanism) to assert control before someone else did
- -> Bishops in Foreign Countries Act 1841. Bishops as missionaries need more power
- —> Separation of church and state activity
The nature of missionary expansion
Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.
“Incidental”
Traditional interpretation of missionaries as bringing Western Society with them and indoctrinating natives, thus weakening the society to become subordinate to imperial forces and colonists
BUT rarely this “clear cut”
Connection of Missionary expansion and the Civilising mission:
From Missionary Writing and Empire, 1800-1860 by Anna Johnston
- Idea that ‘noble savage’ and “childlike” indigenous people could be redeemed
- Missionary thinking “profoundly egalitarian” ie anyone could be saved
- Obligation of missionaries to lead heathens to salvation
- Harry Johnson, 1890, Missionaries induct people into “the best kind of civilisation”
Changing attitudes to missionaries
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
- Pre 1815, disliked by people who saw the task as impossible, but also as posing a danger to colonial rule through “proselytisation”
- Post 1830, impact and social acceptance in Britain and in colonies
- “Missionaries impressed colonial observers by their perseverance, obvious good intentions, translation and educational work, and their scholarship.”
- Success of British imperial enterprise suggested “providential role” for Britain
- More acceptance of different denominations
Difficult relationships between Missionaries, the State and settler societies
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
DIFFICULTIES WITH THE STATE
- 1830s, missionary expansion
- Keen to keep distance from the Chauvinism of the state
- State fears of threat that proselytisation posed
- Wanted to maintain independence from corrupt settler societies esp. in places like AUS
DIFFICULTIES WITH THE SETTLER SOCIEITIES
- Couldn’t survive without trading
- e.g. Providence of Freedom, now Freetown, had missionaries dependent on Clapham Sect philanthropy and Sierra Leone Company for trading
Thomas Thomason on a missionary’s motivation (Primary Quote)
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
“We have annihilated the political importance of the natives, stripped them of their power, laid them prostrate, and given them nothing in return”
- Thomas Thomason, Chaplain to EIC, 1814
The work of missionaries: Education
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
Crucial for building colonial states
- Work of CMS and Wesleyans “indispensable” in founding Freetown
- Education: English and Bible Studies
- Spread of the English language crucial as allowed for more integrated adminstration. Tried to make English the vernacular
- Hoped for cultural transformation
- Sierra Leonean elite whose members dominated the civil service and professions, and passed on ‘Afro-Victorian’ values and institutions to their children (Bridgeheads of Empire? Liberated African Missionaries in West Africa
Bronwen Everill)
SCHOOLS:
Wilsons High School and College, Bombay
George Augustus Selwyn in New Zealand, and new ideas about missionaries
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
- Becomes bishop of New Zealand
- Feels that rather than bishops and bishoprics being the mark of the last stage of religious expansion, they should be the first
- Going beyond colonial expansion and boundaries
The Work of Missionaries: Commerce
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
“Christianity, commerce and civilisation”
- William Carey 1792: Pamplhet argues commercial expansion fulfils Isiah
- Anglo Chinese War (1839-42) –> Treaty ports –> Missionary expansion
Missionaries establishing indigenous churches
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
- Difficulties of expansion, dangerous expansion and low funding after state withdrawl (Selwyn lost 1/2 salary after the church couldn’t compensate him for the loss of his state salary) = new incentive to plan for long-term progress
- Indigenous not required to be subordinate to bishops or missionaries
- -> Samuel Crowther as Bishop of Niger in 1864
CONFLICTING POLICIES
- One approach was to appoint indigenous head ie Samuel Crowther
- UMCA (Universities’ Mission to Central Africa) endorsed Bishops to be sent and established as a head, with autonomy over their bishopric eg Charles Mckenzie in Zambezi
RESOLUTION?
- Both supported expansion and independence from the State
- By 1875, many dubious about Henry Venn, Secretary of CMS, and his policy of indigenous heads
- -> Crowther removed
Missionary’s attitudes to imperial expansion
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
- Often dependent on security of empire
- Saw Indian Mutiny as evidence that more should be done to combat heathenism
- Boxer rising in China meant missionaries reliant on them for indemnity
(examples quoted from book) - Accepted gvt. fundinf for education but didn’t want them to dictate content of education
Felt Xn expansion should come before imperial expansion due to awareness of corrupt imperial expansion
Dependence of missionaries on locals, and the benefits they gave them
(Andrew Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire,’ pp. 222-246 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. III.)
Bridgeheads of Empire? Liberated African
Missionaries in West Africa
Bronwen Everill
- Needed natives as mediators, and needed to be tolerated by them
- Natives often accepted them for their own benefit ie for medicine or trade
- Once educated, native people were dangerous
- The educations received at the parish schools allowed Liberated Africans to become socially mobile (Bridgeheads of Empire? Liberated African Missionaries in West Africa Bronwen Everill)
EXAMPLES OF NATIVE VIOLENCE AGAINST MISSIONARIES
- John Williams, Erromanga, 1839
- Bishop Hannington, Uganda, 1885
