"Adoniram Judson and the Creation of a Missionary Discourse in Pre-Colonial Burma"

Description: 

In the following paper I argue that Adoniram Judson, the first American Baptist Missionary to Burma, was strongly empathetic with his adopted country. His work as interpreter-translator during the negotiations leading to the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826 and his visits to Ava both immediately before and after the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826), although coached in the language of Christian mission, exhibited characteristics markedly different from the perspective of Ann Judson's memoir and from those of certain missionary narratives subsequent to his own. I propose to examine aspects of three texts: Ann Judson's An Account of the American Baptist Mission to the Burman Empire; Henry Gouger's Personal Narrative of Two Years Imprisonment in Burmah; and Adoniram Judson's deposition to John Crawfurd. I shall also refer to J. Snodgrass' Narrative of the Burmese War (1824-1826) and Henry Trant's Two Years in Ava for other perspectives of some events.

Creator/author: 

Helen James

Source/publisher: 

Journal of Burma Studies Vol. 7 (2002)

Date of Publication: 

2002-00-00

Date of entry: 

2009-03-07

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Language: 

English

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